Youtube Tiffany Hawkins in "Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning"
The lifetime miniseries Surviving R. Kelly returns for a second chapter. The new series will examine the backlash that Kelly‘s accusers experienced during chapter one, and combine it with testimony from new accusers, celebrities and legal experts.
Lifetime states that the series will provide “more insights into the ever-growing saga of the R&B singer, who is currently facing federal and state charges.” Read on for the list of cast members and accusers who appear in Surviving R. Kelly: Part 2 – The Reckoning.
‘Surviving R. Kelly: Part 2’ Will See Cast Members & Accusers Return
According to Rolling Stone, the cast members and accusers who appeared in chapter one and have opted to return for chapter two include:
- Lizzette Martinez (accuser)
- Asante McGee (accuser)
- Carey Kelly (sibling)
- Jim DeRogitas (reporter)
- Bruce Kelly (sibling)
- Tarana Burke (#MeToo founder)
- Mathew Knowles (music executive)
- Kitti Jones (accuser)
- Faith Rodgers (accuser)
Newcomers to the cast include Tiffany Hawkins and Jerhonda Pace. Hawkins became involved with Kelly at the age of 15, and was the first woman to bring charges against him in 1996. Vox reports that she settled for $250,000. Rodgers accused Kelly of filming a sexual encounter between them without her consent, and knowingly giving her an STD when she was 19. She filed a lawsuit against him that was eventually settled out-of-court.
Dominique Gardner will appear during the fourth episode, titled “After the Rescue.” Gardner will speak on her relationship with Kelly, and her mother, Michelle Kramer, will discuss the ways in which the singer disrupted their lives. “Before Dominique met R. Kelly, she was this bubbly teenager,” Kramer said. “But after R. Kelly, she was dark. She was like a loner; she didn’t want to be bothered with nobody.”
Newcomers Include Damon Dash & Accusers Like Tiffany Hawkins
Damon Dash is another celebrity who will be making his series debut. Dash was dating R. Kelly’s ex-wife Aaliyah at the time of her death, and he will shed light on the relationship between Kelly and the late singer. “Aaliyah was like the sacrificial lamb for all that, bro, because she didn’t deserve none of that,” Dash said during a promo. “Good soul, good girl, and wasn’t even really so resentful — like, ‘Let that man live, but keep him the f*ck away from me.’ That’s all she wanted, she was just happy to be away.”
Revolt TV reports that other cast members include comedian W. Kamau Bell and Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who represents the families of Kelly’s alleged victims.
Executive producer Brie Miranda Bryant talked to the Hollywood Reporter about the cast, and how the experience of chapter one helped the network find other accusers. “There was a blueprint that was already laid down by journalists like Jim DeRogatis,” she explained. “In speaking with him, we knew that he had interviewed himself over 48 girls and women over the course of following the story. That’s really the truth of how anyone ended up sitting down.”
“There are people who are a part of this very long and sad story that we wanted to have on camera and sometimes that worked out and sometimes that didn’t,” Bryant added. “But I think the entire team believed that everybody who was supposed to sit down for Part 1 or Part 2 did. That everything was sort of just meant to be the way it ended up happening.”
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