New developments about Aaliyah, from the R Kelly docuseries.

15 year old Aaliyah was introduced to the world by her mentor R. Kelly, who took the world by storm with her  angelic voice and graceful moves over two decades ago. Unfortunately, her legacy was cut short due to a fatal airplane accident where she and 8 others died. Her legacy was also clouded in mystery over allegations that she was illegally married to her mentor R. Kelly when she was an underage minor, but later had the marriage annulled. To this day, both camps have refused to confirm nor deny the allegations against the couple. Now, smoking guns have emerged in the form of a NDA (non disclosure agreement) and first hand witness interviews.

In the R Kelly docuseries, there are on-camera interviews with individuals from Kelly’s camp who were in the room with the duo when they wed. They shared that there was an agreement between R Kelly and Aaliyah’s family that states they wouldn’t press charges against him for his illegal marriage after it was annulled, in exchange for him selling the rights to his first three albums to Aaliyah’s family. That means that there was a financial incentive involved. Also, according to Jim DeRogatis (the journalist who first broke news of Kelly’s sexual abuse claims), the NDA also alleges that Kelly was physically abusive towards his underage wife as well. Aaliyah’s family had no comment regarding the docuseries.

“We have had a lot of conversations about how to tell Aaliyah’s story every time, because we really want to be respectful of her legacy. But what she went through, we can’t turn our backs on.” said Jesse Daniels, Executive Producer of  the “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries.

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