Singer R. Kelly is still incarcerated, but social media posts wrongly claim he’s been freed

A July 1 Instagram post declares that singer R. Kelly "is out" despite a 30-year prison sentence handed down in 2022 after he was convicted in New York of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

"Victory at last," reads text over a video clip of Kelly. "R. Kelly has been released from United States of America Federal Prison, Chicago."

In the clip, Kelly says he promises "we’re going to straighten all this out." 

But the footage is old and public records show he’s still incarcerated.

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The video is from 2019, when Kelly left Cook County Jail in Chicago. He had been arrested for outstanding child support payments, and he was released after paying off the $161,000 he owed to his ex-wife, ABC News reported then..  

Prison records show that Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is 57 years old. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a "Robert Sylveste Kelly," age 57, was in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago as of July 2. We don’t know why "Sylvester" is missing the "r" on the prison bureau’s website, but the register number listed there for Kelly matches what’s appeared in court filings and news coverage.

We rate this post False.