By Ada Osadebe vanguard
American singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R. Kelly, has had new allegations leveled against him stating he married and silenced 15- year -old Aaliyah and her family through a non-disclosure agreement.
According to Variety, the recent accusations were made in the episode of “Surviving R. Kelly” on Lifetime which will be aired on January 2 and January 3.
The 2022 federal trial of R. Kelly, which the NDA was used as evidence in, was the focus of the docuseries. Jane Doe #1 in the trial was the late Aaliyah.
After years of the media and music industry scandalizing her marriage to the now-convicted artist in the 1990s, “Surviving R. Kelly” uses Aaliyah’s tale to highlight her as a victim of R. Kelly.
In August 1994, the couple was married in secret. At the time, Aaliyah was 15, but her age was misrepresented on the marriage license as being 18. Aaliyah’s parents declared the union null and void in February 1995.
In the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” many from R. Kelly’s camp who were there when the couple were married express their remorse about the union in on-camera interviews.
People who knew R. Kelly and Aaliyah well reveal additional information regarding the allegedly fabricated contract between R. Kelly and Aaliyah’s family.
In “Surviving R. Kelly,” Gem Pratt, a former security guard and boyhood friend of R. Kelly, makes the claim that Aaliyah’s father was enraged by the union and compelled the annulment.
Pratt claims that R. Kelly’s family entered into a legal agreement with him that guaranteed they wouldn’t pursue legal action against him for the illegitimate union once it was dissolved. In exchange, R. Kelly allegedly gave Aaliyah’s family a financial incentive by selling them the rights to his first three albums.
R. Kelly’s New York trial in 2022 included the NDA, although there was little media attention of it. The use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases, particularly at work, has grown to be a contentious topic, underscoring the power disparity that results from the offender or businesses silencing victims through compelled legal papers.
The NDA that R. Kelly used against Aaliyah was discovered prior to R. Kelly’s trial by writer Jim DeRogatis, who broke the story of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse more than two decades ago.
DeRogatis revealed in an interview a few years ago that the annulment and Aaliyah’s legal case against R. Kelly had been sealed in relation to the documents that were revealed to him.
He said, “It’s a harrowing document.
“A non-disclosure 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.”