SINGER'S SEX SHAME
R Kelly’s back-up singer saw star having sex with Aaliyah, 15, on his tour bus, new documentary claims
During 1994 it was widely reported Kelly and Aaliyah had secretly married, but both denied it
R KELLY’S back-up singer saw him having sex with a15-year-old Aaliyah, according to a new documentary.
Lifetime's upcoming Surviving R. Kelly, which airs Thursday in the US, sees Jovante Cunningham claiming to have witnessed the Ignition singer commit statutory rape on the then teen.
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She said: “On a tour bus, there really aren’t many confined spaces. When you get on the bus there are bunks and so these bunks have little curtains you can pull at night if you don’t want anybody to see you sleeping,” People reports.
Jovante added: “So it just so happened we were all laying in our bunks and the curtains are open, everybody’s communicating, laughing, when the [room] door flew open on the bus. Robert was having sex with Aaliyah.”
The RnB star’s real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly.
When asked what she saw, the back-up singer replied: “Things that an adult should not be doing with a child.
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“I can’t stress to you how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago.”
Also during 1994 it was widely reported Kelly and Aaliyah had secretly married, but both denied it.
A later unearthed marriage certificate listed the then 15-year-old as 18.
Subsequently her parents had it annulled the following year.
Aaliyah met Kelly though Barry Hankerson, her uncle and his manager.
Cunningham said of meeting Aaliyah: “Aaliyah [was] very tom-boyish, glasses, braces, no swag.
“She truly was a beautiful young lady. We used to sneak Aaliyah out of the hotel room and take her all over the place.
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“Those were the good old days, but those are the things that also make you cry.”
Kelly went on to become her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.
Aaliyah cut ties with Kelly after the accusations of illegal marriage.
She tragically died in a plane crash in 2002, aged 22, shortly after filming a music video in the Bahamas.
The eye-opening six-part documentary interviews dozens of former friends, family members and colleague of Kelly who all make claims about the singer abusing women and girls.
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Last year several women came forward claiming Kelly had been running a sex cult, and in May a woman filed a lawsuit against him claiming that he had treated her like a sex slave.
But the singer recently said he has been left “heartbroken” by the allegations, and has criticised the media for trying to distort and destroy his legacy by reporting allegations that he sexually mistreats women.
He was acquitted of child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008.
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