Footage has emerged that appears to incriminate R. Kelly for knowingly marrying Aaliyah when she was underage.
Kelly’s lawyer has in the past denied that his client knew that the late pop star, who died in a plane crash in 2001, was just 15 when they married in secret in 1994.
However, a documentary filmed earlier that same year hears Kelly discussing Aaliyah’s age as he worked on her debut album. Footage of Kelly in a recording studio is overlaid with a voice recording in which he says: “Right now I’m producing a very talented lady – a young lady. She’s 14, Aaliyah. She’s real street.”
https://youtu.be/4BeHQDiSzcI
Kelly and Aaliyah also appeared in a Video Soul interview later in 1994 where they were asked about the nature of their relationship. In the footage, Aaliyah refuses to tell host Leslie Segar her real age, saying that it’s “a secret”.
It was reported shortly after the interview that they married in an Illinois hotel room on August 31 1994. A Cook County marriage certificate that was published by Vibe magazine, The New York Times reports, listed Aaliyah’s age as 18. She would have been 15 years old at the time.
Kelly’s new attorney Steven Greenberg last week denied that his client knew of Aaliyah’s real age at the time of their illegal wedding, which was annulled a short time after.
The news comes in the wake of Lifetime’s recent docu-series Surviving R Kelly, which sees multiple women accuse Kelly of sexual abuse.
Kelly has denied these claims as he has done with numerous sexual misconduct allegations in the past but he issued a fresh denial through Greenberg last week.
Greenberg told the Associated Press on Saturday: “The allegations aren’t true because he never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”
According to TMZ, Chicago police officers have visited Kelly’s Trump Tower apartment to question two women over claims he was holding them against their will.
Last year, Kelly denied accusations of holding young women in an abusive cult.