More has come to light about singer R. Kelly’s marriage and subsequent annulment to the late songstress Aaliyah.
The final installments of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly, which aired on Monday and Tuesday, spotlighted the former couple’s relationship as the docuseries went more in-depth into the aftermath of the singers’ marriage annulment.
As Variety reports, the episodes centered on R. Kelly’s 2022 federal trial, where an NDA he had Aaliyah and her family to sign after their annulment was brought into court as evidence.
In 1994, a then 15-year-old Aaliyah secretly married Kelly, who was 27. Because Aaliyah was a minor, the marriage certificate falsely stated her age as 18.
A few months after the pair’s secret nuptials, the “Try Again” singer’s parents had the marriage annulled.
In Surviving R. Kelly, Gem Pratt, the “I Believe I Can Fly” crooner’s childhood friend and former bodyguard, claimed Aaliyah’s parents had a contract with Kelly that they wouldn’t press charges against him for the illegal marriage. In return, Kelly sold the rights to his first three albums to Aaliyah’s family.
Kelly’s trial last year — before he was eventually sentenced to 30 years in prison for federal racketeering and sex trafficking — included the previously sealed NDA, but it failed to receive widespread coverage.
In an interview with The New York Times‘ podcast Popcast, Jim DeRogatis, the journalist who first wrote about Kelly’s sexual abuse in 2000, said, “It’s a harrowing document. A nondisclosure agreement on both her part and Kelly’s, vowing not to pursue further legal claims for physical abuse. So, it wasn’t just an underage sexual relationship, he hit her, allegedly, according to that court document.”
