R. Kelly was rushed to a hospital last week after he allegedly overdosed on medication given to him at a federal prison in North Carolina, his attorney said in a new court filing.
“In the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, Mr. Kelly awoke. He felt faint. He was dizzy. He started to see black spots in his vision,” attorney Beau B. Brindley said in the filing obtained by Page Six.
Kelly passed out and was transported to Duke University Hospital, where he underwent treatment.
“At the hospital, Mr. Kelly learned that he had been administered an overdose quantity of his medications that threatened his life,” the documents say.
Related: R. Kelly’s Appeal of Federal Sex Crimes Conviction Rejected
The lawsuit says the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, took a near-fatal amount of anti-anxiety medication that he was prescribed by a prison doctor.
While being transported to the hospital, Kelly allegedly overheard a prison employee say: “This is going to open a new can of worms.”
Kelly is serving 20 years for child pornography and enticement of minors concurrently with a 30-year sentence on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges after separate convictions in 2022.
The “Ignition” singer’s overdose ordeal began on June 10, when prison staff at the Federal Correctional Institute Facility in Butner, North Carolina, placed him in solitary confinement for his safety after he claimed his life was in danger.
That same day, his attorney alleged prison staff told the singer to take “further medications,” which the filing says was recorded “on camera.”
“Mr. Kelly took the medication as directed,” the filing says. “They gave him an amount of medicine that could have killed him.”
During his two-day hospital stay, Kelly’s attorney says doctors found blood clots in the singer’s legs and lungs that required surgery. But prison officials allegedly denied the surgery. The filing additionally alleges prison staff took the singer off his blood-thinner medication.
A spokesperson for FCC Butner said in a statement: “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including medical and health-related issues.”
Kelly, 58, was transferred in April 2023 to FCC Butner from a prison in Illinois.
His attorneys previously asked President Donald Trump for a pardon because the singer says there is a “plot to kill him” as he tries to expose alleged “corruption” in his federal prosecutions.
The Grammy-winning singer’s legal team has filed a third request seeking temporary release to home confinement to save his life.
In response, prosecutors filed a motion saying Kelly should do his time and stop playing a victim.
“This is the behavior of an abuser and a master manipulator on display,” prosecutors said in the motion obtained by TMZ.
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