With all the accusations made against R. Kelly in the last few years, it's crazy to think how he hasn't gotten locked up yet. Lifetime's new documentary Surviving R. Kelly is centred on interviews from his accusers and those that have lived through the singer's abuse over the years. While the messed up things he's done have been alleged, they seem to date back to decades ago when he was mentoring Aaliyah. Many credit Kellz with Aaliyah's breakout but, according to one of his former backup singers, he was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with her when she was just 15-years-old.
The first episode of the docu-series will air on January 3 and according to People, an interview with Jovante Cunningham, one of R. Kelly's former backup singers, will shed light on the nature of Kellz' relationship with Aaliyah. Cunningham says she was a direct witness of several sexual misconduct crimes by the singer, including a time she walked in on 15-year-old Aaliyah and 27-year-old R. Kelly having sex.
"We were out on the road with Aaliyah," says Cunningham. "On a tour bus, there really aren’t many confined spaces. When you get on the bus there are bunks and so these bunks have little curtains you can pull at night if you don’t want anybody to see you sleeping. So it just so happened we were all laying in our bunks and the curtains are open, everybody’s communicating, laughing. When the door flew open on the bus. Robert was having sex with Aaliyah."
When asked about what she saw, she responded, "Things that an adult should not be doing with a child. I can’t stress to you how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago."
R. Kelly and Aaliyah never spoke on the nature of their relationship but it was widely reported that the two secretly got married with false documents made to say Aaliyah was 18-years-old. She would have been 15 at the time.