BEVERLY HILLS, January 22, (THEWILL) – R.Kelly is making some serious confessions in his latest GQ feature. The singer who has had his share of controversies speaks candidly to the magazine on being sexually abused as a child, his infamous marriage/relationship with Aaliyah, those child pornography charges that trailed him forever and a whole lot of other things.
See what he said about Aaliyah below!
On what he saw in Aaliyah musically when he started working with her: “Aaliyah? I heard first of all this soft voice, but very…a lot of charisma. And I saw her as a star the minute I heard her sing and dance. Saw her dance. She wasn’t the greatest dancer, but the dance moves she was doing were different than the other dancers that I’ve seen on television. And I said, ‘This girl’s gonna be a star, whether I work with her or not.’ ”
Obviously the two of you became very close.
“Yeah. Yeah.”
How would you describe that?
“Uh, I would describe it as best friends. Deep friends. As far as we both loved music and wanted to be successful. She’s a Capricorn, I’m a Capricorn, my momma a Capricorn, her daddy’s a Capricorn, you know. It was just so much in common with each other.”
And these are difficult questions but would you say you were in love with her?
“Yes. I would say I loved ‘liyah.”
But “in love”?
“Well, there’s a lot of ways to be in love with a person. I was in love with my grandfather, you know. But yeah, I would say I was in love with Aaliyah just like I was in love with anybody else. But in a different, friend type of way.”
And she was in love with you?
“I would think so. Absolutely. I would say that.”
As you know, people know that there was a wedding ceremony and you got married.
“Well, because of Aaliyah’s passing, as I’ve always said, out of respect for her mother who’s sick and her father who’s passed, I will never have that conversation with anyone. Out of respect for Aaliyah, and her mother and father who has asked me not to personally. But I can tell you I loved her, I can tell you she loved me, we was very close. We were, you know, best best best best friends.”
But here’s what seems difficult from the outside. Sadly, Aaliyah can’t speak for herself, and people have what they think is a very clear idea of the situation—that the two of you got married, that you were having a sexual relationship. Right now, that’s the record as far as people are concerned. Those are the facts.
“Right.”
So you not talking about it doesn’t feel like it’s protecting her or respecting her, it just feels like it’s protecting you.
“Yeah, yeah. You know, I tell you this: I know Aaliyah’s not here and can’t speak for herself, but there was a time that she was plenty here, after that rumor and all of that stuff started. Plenty grown. She was 22 and could speak for herself. Her mother, her father, anybody else, could speak and say whatever they wanted.”
But with the documentary evidence, it doesn’t seem an unclear situation. I’m trying to understand your life, and if you explained the real situation, it would maybe make people understand better than the version they have at the moment.
“Well, unfortunately when there’s two parties involved in any situation, both parties have to be respected. Sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself in a way to respect someone else’s wishes, and to respect someone else’s passing…. People can say, ‘Hey, well, he’s just trying to protect hisself.’ Well, I have nothing to protect myself from. I’m still successful, and I’ve got an album out now, I’m gonna move on after this interview and go to the next interview and do another interview, and these questions are going to be asked. I did the best I could by writing my book and putting it out there for whoever wants to read about Robert. [Aaliyah is not mentioned in Kelly’s book.] Can’t satisfy everybody, unfortunately. I wish that I could.”
Did you do anything in that situation that you feel bad about or you feel was wrong?
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That’s my answer forever: Absolutely not.”
The full story makes for an interesting read. Check it out here
Shoot credit:
Photography: Sebastian Kim
