Photo: Chicago PD
She said he is a "friend."
By Sarah Gangraw — Written on Feb 28, 2019
The Chicago woman who posted bail for R. Kelly Monday afternoon was identified as Valencia Love.
"It was his own money. I just posted bail for him," Love, 47, told ABC News over the phone on Tuesday, adding that the singer is a "good friend of mine."
R. Kelly was released from Cook County Jail Monday after spending three nights behind bars for sex abuse charges against him. The Grammy-winning artist was charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse with four alleged victims, three of which are underage girls. He pleaded not guilty to all counts. R. Kelly is currently out and about, thanks to Love.
So who is Valencia Love? Here's what we know about the woman who bailed out R. Kelly and her relationship with him.
1. She thinks R. Kelly is innocent.
Love said she believes the rapper's side of the story, according to FOX32's Tia Ewing.
"He's my friend and I knew he needed help," she said. "There are three sides to every story, [Kelly's] side, there's (the alleged victims), and the truth."
Love also said that R. Kelly is her "friend" and that she has his back.
"As a friend, if he says he's innocent, I can only believe that he is innocent," she said. "If he did it he is wrong," she added but thinks that he should at least get the chance to prove his innocence.
2. She claims he is "not a monster."
Along with calling R. Kelly her friend, Love made sure to say that he has treated her with nothing but kindness.
"He’s not a monster, he’s not,” Love said. “He’s been nothing but a gentleman to me.”
3. She is a Chicago businesswoman.
Love reportedly owns multiple restaurants in the Chicago area including Love on the Blu, a diner just outside the city, as well as a childcare facility, the Lord and Child Christian Day Care, according to Daily Mail.
Yelp
4. She met R. Kelly on a cruise.
Love reportedly met R. Kelly on a cruise just five months ago, a friend told the Chicago Sun-Times. She was a fan of his music and the two became friends while on a Spirit of Chicago cruise on Lake Michigan in September.
5. She recently came into a lot of money.
Court records show that Love has had some money trouble of her own in recent years. According to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Love filed for bankruptcy in 2015, claiming she was unable to pay $2,700 in parking tickets.
But in 2017, she and her former husband won $1.1 million each in a wrongful death settlement filed against the former Children’s Medical Hospital in Chicago related to the death of their daughter. Their daughter died during a heart procedure in 2010, court records show.
6. She has received a lot of backlash for bailing R. Kelly out of jail.
A number of people have taken to Yelp to bash Love. Dozens of users have left hateful comments as reviews for Love's establishments, some even claiming to boycott them.
“Too bad the owner posted bail for disgusting, R. Kelly. WILL NOT BE EATING HERE,” one Yelp user posted. “The owner of this restaurant financially supports child rapists and is responsible for posting bail for R. Kelly despite videos showing him raping several underage girls,” wrote another.
The comments continue, saying things like, "This restaurant is run by someone who supports pedophilia. Valencia Love bailed out known pedophile Robert Kelly,” and “I’m sure this place will be closed permanently in two weeks.”
Love responded by saying she was simply aiding a friend.
“Thank you I just help.out a Friend if he guilty let him pay for it thru the courts. I am sure some of them.have bail out murders drug dealers etc.," she wrote. Yelp acknowledged the fact that many of the reviews were news related and temporarily disabled comments on the page.
"This business recently made waves in the news, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news," Yelp noted. "While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this news event, we work to verify that the content you see here reflects personal consumer experiences with the business rather than the news itself. As a result, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page."
Sarah Gangraw writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.