She's a pro!

Gayle King stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss her headline-making interview with R. Kelly earlier this week, and the journalist explained how she kept her cool when the R&B crooner went totally insane during the sit-down.

"I could see him getting more heated. He was upset with me about some of the questions; that's okay. He was a little irritated; that's okay. So I decided if I sit there quietly, make eye contact with him. I thought the minute I walk up and say-- If I stood up, like, 'Calm down!' ... So I thought if I just sit there quietly looking at him, he would know I'm not going anywhere and I'll just wait for you to finish whatever this is and then you'll sit back down in the seat, and he did that," she revealed.

King also revealed that the jailed singer slipped back into the room when his girlfriends/sex slaves were being interviewed, and made his presence known by coughing when they were asked a question he didn't like.

"R. Kelly comes back in so he can hear the conversation; he's out of my eyesight and he's out of the girls' eyesight, too. But when there was a question he didnt like, and I can't remember what it was, you hear this," she said, imitating the coughing.

"It's a bad situation. I think one day years from now, everybody will look back on this and say it's very sad, very tawdry and just very very ugly. We don't know how the R. Kelly story is going to end, but what I do know is those girls are going to need their family sooner I think rather than later, so it was heartbreaking," she added.

So what was her takeaway?

"I did think that on some level he would have a moment of reflection, he would have contrition. So it became very troubling to me to see him really just fall apart.I thought we were witnessing the self-destruction of a man having a breakdown, and that's never a good thing to see," she admitted.

Apparently, R. Kelly threatened King at one point, after she brought up the fact his ex-girlfriend Dominique Gardner had to be "rescued" from him by her estranged mother.

"This is just the beginning. You can say what Dominique's mother..." he began to say before King interrupted. "She says she had to rescue her daughter," she interjected. "Rescue? Oh really? Be careful, be careful Gayle. Gayle, be careful. You're not just saying it. You're breaking my heart, you're saying it like you believe it," he warned.

Good thing this loser is broke and is probably going to jail for a LONG time! The full interview airs tonight on CBS.