Aaliyah
Following R. Kelly‘s paramount conviction in federal court after decades as a sexual abuser and trafficker, the third installment in Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary series will arrive on Jan. 2-3, as part of a two-night event.
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Titled Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter, the docuseries will feature bombshell revelations from Kelly’s 2021 trial, where he faced charges including racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, kidnapping, forced labor and Mann Act Coercion and Enticement. The series will detail the disgraced R&B star’s crimes, which led to his conviction on nine counts and a sentence of 30 years in prison. Interviewees shed light on key moments including Azriel Clary and Joycelyn Savage’s infamous interviews with Gayle King, as told by Clary’s father, and firsthand accounts of the intimidation tactics used by Kelly and his team surrounding victim testimonies, including setting fire to a Jane Doe’s car with intent to intimidate.
The documentary will also shed light on Kelly’s lesser known victims, including a John Doe, and his relationship with late R&B singer Aaliyah, 12 years his junior. Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter is executive produced by Joel Karsberg, Tamra Simmons, Jesse Daniels, Maria Pepin and Brie Miranda Bryant, and contains over 60 voices and testimonials, including victims, their families, Kelly’s supporters, reporters who attended the trial, among others.
The docuseries trailer shows the chaos that erupted for five weeks outside of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse, including supporters with microphones yelling “Justice for R. Kelly” day after day, a supporter with Kelly’s name tattooed on her chest, and the influx of press swarming the premises.
During the trial, Kelly’s defense team argued for the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer to receive the minimum sentence of 10 years or less, citing in court documents a “traumatic childhood involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.”
Prosecutors, however, sought a minimum 25-year term. In the end, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years, unintentionally symbolic of the 30 years of abuse he inflicted on countless victims, known and unknown.
Watch the trailer for Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter below.
Actor Isaiah Washington sat down for an interview with VladTV this week, where she shared his thoughts on his Romeo Must Die co-star Aaliyah, who secretly married R. Kelly in 1994 when she was only 15 and the “Ignition” singer was 27.
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During R. Kelly’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial in 2021, the singer’s tour manager Demetrius Smith shared that he had reason to believe Kelly had impregnated Aaliyah when she was still a minor, which is why they got married. The marriage was later annulled in February 1995. Aaliyah died tragically just a few years later, in 2001 at age 22, in an airplane accident in the Bahamas.
While many believe that Kelly preyed on the late star when she was just a teenager, Washington claimed in the interview that she was not a victim. He admitted that he had a “crush” on the then-21-year-old “mysterious” singer while filming Romeo Must Die, in part to her being so “mature.”
As far as the R. Kelly relationship, Washington said that he believes she was in control due to her mature personality. “She was very in control of her being, but she was a businesswoman too. Super smart,” he said. “I think she was in control of that situation even at her age.”
“She was 15 going on 30, so she was in control of that whole situation,” he later added. “I don’t judge her, but she was very smart and very mature and very in control of her situation. I don’t believe one minute that Aaliyah was made to do anything that Aaliyah didn’t want to do.”
Listen to the full interview below.
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