R. Kelly released from jail after someone paid his child support

Embattled R&B singer R. Kelly was released from jail for the second time in a matter of weeks, after someone paid the $161,000 he owed in back child support.

A representative for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the jail, told the Associated Press that the singer was released Saturday afternoon.

There is no word on who posted the money.

Kelly was taken into custody Wednesday following a hearing for failure of child support payments that he owes his ex-wife Drea Kelly. The two have three children together, daughter Joann, 21, and sons Jay, 19, and Robert, 17.

The 52-year-old’s latest legal troubles came just a week after he pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse from four women, including three who were underage at the time of the alleged abuse.

Kelly spent a weekend in jail before a suburban Chicago business owner claiming to be a friend of the singer’s posted his $100,000 bail.

The singer vehemently denied the allegations in an interview with CBS’s Gayle King, parts of which aired on the morning of his court appearance. While being pressed by King, the singer broke down and exploded in front of the cameras.

He said he’s being assassinated by all 50 people who participated in Lifetime’s startling docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and called them liars. The program detailed his long history of alleged sexual abuse and the supposed sex cult that has kept women trapped in his home.

“I will tell you this. People are going back to my past — that’s exactly what they’re trying to do — they’re going back to the past and they’re trying to add all of this stuff now to that to make of this stuff that’s going on now [feel] real to people,” Kelly told King. “Whether they’re old rumors, new rumors, future rumors, not true.”

gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedy