Gayle King Talks R. Kelly’s Emotional Explosion During Interview: “I Knew He Was Upset With Me. I Knew That He Didn’t Like Some Of The Questions”

The interview that shook morning news is the one that also shook the interviewer herself. “CBS This Morning” host, Gayle King, says singer-songwriter R.Kelly “worried” her after he exploded with emotion during their conversation.

King and Kelly sat down to talk the singer’s numerous sexual abuse allegations, his brief detention and his current charges. During the interview, which aired Wednesday, Kelly became extremely emotional and visibly frustrated when denying the allegations. In fact, at one point Kelly leaped from his chair and began crying hysterically. When chatting with ET on Wednesday, Gayle said close friends, family, and bestie Oprah Winfrey called to check in with her after watching Kelly’s intense meltdown. King said that while she was never afraid she was “worried.”

“I was never afraid, I never thought that R Kelly was going to hurt me,” King told ET. “I knew he was upset with me. I knew that he didn’t like some of the questions, but I never thought he was going to physically attack me … I was only concerned because he was so amped up and very angry that he might accidentally hit me, so I did worry about that.”

Following the interview, many applauded King for her calm behavior. “I didn’t see any point in both of us overreacting,” she said. “The worst thing you could do is try to tell somebody, ‘It’s OK, settle down’ — that only makes them angrier. I just thought, let me sit here quietly. I made eye contact to let him know, ‘I’m still sitting here waiting for you,’ but I never felt I was in danger.” She continued, “I thought a couple of times that maybe we’re witnessing a breakdown as it’s happening, and that’s why I asked him towards the end of the interview, ‘Have you thought about therapy, or are you in therapy?'” she also notes. “And he seemed to think, ‘Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.’ He became very emotional and very, very adamant that his voice was heard.”

King said Kelly was adamant about continuing the interview, regardless of how emotional he was. “At no point did R. Kelly shy away from the camera,” King pointed out. “I think that he’s so emotional and so sick, he says, of people that are telling lies about him, and that he’s been holding it in for a very long time that he just wanted people to hear him and we allowed him to do it, but we also challenged him. … He kept bringing up that these are old allegations that ‘I beat’ by the way — which I thought was an interesting choice of words, that ‘I beat’ — and people keep going back to old allegations. And I said these are not old allegations, we’re talking about the allegations made in the R. Kelly documentary. He basically just denied everything. … He really takes no responsibility in any of the allegations that are being made.”