This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at PS Behrend chapter.

So here is another article where I am like, “Oh my God, where do I begin? Like, do I say how he was born in Chicago Illinois in 1967? Nah, nah no one gives a damn about that.” Well, you may think that but that does make him 52 years old which might make things ~sketchy~, which I’ll explain why later on. For now, I don’t want to beat around the bush so I’ll get right to it: today we are focusing on R. Kelly’s deceptive past with a series of girls, along with his major life events, and what the heck is actually going on. Let’s Begin!

Early 90s:

R.Kelly hits the mainstream music scene when he signs a contract with Jive Records and releases Born in the 90s.
Three years after he signed his contract, he releases his second album 12 pay, which ended up selling over 8 million copies and featured his number one hit, Bump N Grind.
R.Kelly produces and song writes debut album Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number for the young singer (15 years old), Aaliyah Haughton. The title speaks volumes as the pair secretly marry through a marriage certificate that falsely states Aaliyah as an 18-year-old. Kelly is 27 at the time. Yet, the marriage comes to an end the following year when Aaliyah’s parents became aware of the marriage.

Late 90s:

A short while after R. Kelly’s first marriage ended, he has a private wedding ceremony for his second marriage with 22-year-old dancer Andrea Lee. They met two years before they got married when Andrea auditioned as a backup dancer. They end up have three kids together.
Tiffany Hawkins files a lawsuit against R. Kelly along with his recording, publishing, and management companies for personal injuries and emotional damage from her claiming the sexual relationship she had with R. Kelly that lasted three years, with the relationship starting when she was 15 and ended when she was 18 years old. Hawkins was suing for 10 million dollars.
Kelly wins three Grammys for I Believe I Can Fly. This is also when R. Kelly handles the Hawkins case outside of court for a settlement of $250,000. Sadly, because of the settlement, Tiffany Hawkins is forbidden to talk about the situation.

Early 2000s:

Chicago Sun-Times published a report on the accusations of R. Kelly engaging in sexual activities/relationships with women as young as fifteen years old This report by Jim Derogatis and Abdon M. Pallasch described the Hawkins case and Kelly’s marriage with Aaliyah Haughton. The spokesperson for Kelly at the time declined to comment on the article.
R. Kelly’s first wife, Aaliyah Haughton, dies in a plane crash.
A former intern at Epic Records and inspiring raper, Tracy Sampson, filed a lawsuit against R. Kelly for initiating sexual activities with her at 17 years old. In her lawsuit, Ms. Sampson stated, “I was lied to by him. I was coerced into receiving oral sex from a girl I did not want to have sex with. I was often treated as his personal sex object and cast aside. He would tell me to come to his studio and have sex with him, then tell me to go. He often tried to control every aspect of my life including who I would see and where I would go.” This case was settled out of court for an UNDISCLOSED SUM.
Jim Derogatis received an anonymous 27-minute videotape that showed R. Kelly engaging in sex with a young woman. Derogatis was concerned the woman featured in the tape was underaged and he turned over the videotape to the Chicago police to investigate it. The girl in the video was identified by her Aunt, the singer Sparkle (Stephanie Edwards). She introduced her niece to R.Kelly as an inspiring rapper who was twelve years old. Later on, R. Kelly denied all the claims.
Copies of R. Kelly’s sex tape is sold on the streets. This is also when R.Kelly’s album, The Best of Both Worlds ft. Jay-Z is released. It sold only one million copies, a low number for R. Kelly.
Kelly is sued by Patrice Jones. She claimed that Kelly began a sexual relationship with her when she was 16-years-old. She also accused Kelly of pressuring her into having an abortion of the baby that was a result of the sexual relationship. Kelly’s lawyer, Gerry Margolis, stated that the accusation was a “collection of half-truth, distortions, and outright lies.” This case was again settled out of court for an UNDISCLOSED SUM.
Dancer Montina (Tina) Woods sued Kelly for him secretly recording their sexual encounter and for the tape being sold. Kelly’s representatives called this claim, “nonsensical” and “ridiculous”. This case was settled out of court for an UNDISCLOSED SUM.

(Do you see the pattern here?)

R. Kelly is indicted on 21 charges related to child pornography. This came about from a second anonymously-sent video of him seemingly having sex with a young girl. Kelly maintained to be released on bail.
A court-approved visit to Miami for a music video leads to Kelly being arrested for an additional 12 counts of child pornography. He was let out of jail the same day on a $12,000 bail.
Florida Judge says child pornography photos were illegally seized from Kelly’s house and drops all charges.

Mid-2000s:

Cook County prosecutors dropped 7 of the 21 child pornography charges.
Judge allows Kelly to go two-month tour while he awaits trial.
Kelly’s wife, Andrea Kelly, files for an order of protection. She rescinds order later.
Kelly files for divorce and the case is delayed as the judge became injured after falling off a ladder.
The trial is delayed again as Kelly has emergency surgery for a burst appendix.
Andrea Kelly had an interview with Essence magazine and said, “What doesn’t break you makes you stronger, and I’m living proof. I know the allegations against my husband don’t reflect on me as an individual. They don’t reflect on me as a mom or as a wife, and they don’t reflect on me in my everyday life.”
Once again, the trial is delayed as the prosecutor gives birth.

Late 2000’s:

The trial finally begins for the 14 charges of child pornography case against Kelly. In the opening statement, prosecutors showed the controversial videotape. After 7 ½ hours of jury deliberating, Kelly is found not guilty.
Kelly and his wife finalized their divorce.

2012 – Present:

Kelly is accused of owing $5 million in unpaid taxes dating as far back as 2005 to Internal Revenue Service, filed in Cook County.
Kelly stormed out of an interview with Huffpost live when the host asked him questions about past allegations of misconduct.
Buzzfeed publishes article about Kelly having a cult. This comes from three sets of parents claiming that Kelly is holding their daughters in the abusive cult and “brainwashing” them. The six women surrounding Kelly were 18-31 years old and some lived with him at his Chicago Recording Studio. Timothy and Joycelyn Savage told CNN that they believed their daughter, Joycelyn, is having a sexual relationship with Kelly and was being manipulated by him to stop contact with the outside world. Joycelyn denied these claims and asked her parents to stop speaking about her relationship with Kelly via a video shared with TMZ.
A petition is started by Oronike Odeleye to get Kelly’s music off the airways in Atlanta and this catches eye of activist Kenyette Barnes. The hashtag #MuteRKelly is born.
24-year-old Jerhonda Pace breaks her a nondisclosure agreement and tells her story. She was a fan of Kelly and met him when she was 15 in 2008 outside the Chicago courtroom where he was tried for child pornography. They began a sexual relationship when Jerhonda was 16. Kelly denies this claim.
Rolling stone publishes an article of an interview with former Dallas DJ Kitti Jones. She told rolling stone that her relationship with Kelly while she was in her 30’s mirrored allegations in the Buzzfeed article.
WOC, women of color group, within the Time’s Up movement calls the industry to cut ties with Kelly.
Twenty year old Faith Rodgers presses charges against Kelly for giving her alcohol, assaulting her and knowingly gave her herpes and locking her in rooms for punishment. Faith said she was nineteen when she first met Kelly.
Spotify removed R.Kelly’s music from its playlist, stating new policies on hate content and hateful conduct.
After Kelly didn’t show up to court, he lost his federal lawsuit against Comcast Spectator, which runs the Macon Coliseum in Georgia, claiming the venue didn’t pay him the $100,000 concert there.
Kelly releases nineteen-minute song, “I Admit”, which addressed accusations of sexual misconduct against him.
A New York screening of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” is evacuated over a gun threat. In the audience was the accusations, along with the families that accused Kelly of holding their daughters.
Lifetime debuted the six-hour series of “Surviving R.Kelly”. The series showed R. Kelly’s rise to fame and all the sexual abuse allegations that Kelly has dodged over the years. The premier was such a hit and had large rating that called on a renew for Kelly to be investigated.
Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, said Kelly “has done nothing wrong”. “Someone with an agenda has done a hit piece,” Greenberg says of the docuseries. “(Kelly’s) out in public. He’s not hiding. There’s no secret compound with sex slaves”.
Faith Rodgers, who appeared on “Surviving R.Kelly”, received threats and retaliation from Kelly.
Sony music drops Kelly and he is removed from RCA records website.
Variety reported that a former manager of Kelly, Henry Mason, turned himself to Georgia authorities on a charge of threatening a man who accused Kelly introducing his daughter into his sex cult.
Kelly was indicted on ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Kelly spent the night in jail in Chicago and was held on a million dollar bail.
Kelly pleaded not guilty on the ten accounts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Kelly had an interview with Gayle King. The singer was emotionally distressed and aggravated. He screamed that he was not a monster and everyone is lying. He denied that he ever held women against their will or having sex with a minor. “That’s stupid! Use your common sense. Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to, love me if you want. But just use your common sense. How stupid would it be for me, with my crazy past and what I’ve been through — oh right now I just think I need to be a monster, hold girls against their will, chain them up in my basement and don’t let them eat, don’t let them out, unless they need some shoes down the street from their uncle!” At another point, he yells, “Stop it. You don’t quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my fucking life!” He also mentioned his love and respect for women. He essentially tried to paint himself as the victim. They also interviewed his two young current girlfriends and those girlfriend’s parents. The parents said how they don’t have contact with their daughter and that Kelly is brainwashing them. Apparently the interview with the current girlfriends, it said Kelly was in the room for most of the interviewed and apparently coughed when he didn’t approve of something. But anyhow, Gayle King didn’t even flinch when Kelly was visibly screaming in her face and kept her cool the whole time. Props to the freakin queen of interviews.

And here is a link to the CBS interview as well: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-gayle-king-interview-with-r-kelly/

Now after all of that, you can see where you stand. I mean I just think Kelly is guilty with all of the staggering cases and allegations he has against him. Plus, I watched his whole interview with Gayle King. I don’t think an innocent and normal man would have acted the way that Kelly did. Honestly, I felt uncomfortable just by the way Kelly was screaming and I couldn’t believe how calm Gayle was. But anyhow, you all can decide where you stand on all of it.

But las thing, this article looked upon R.Kelly’s past which included allegations of sexual activity with minors, abuse, and more. If you or anyone is any of these situations, there are many ways to get help, you are not alone.

Here are some number to reach out to (and more are available through an online search):

National Sexual Abuse Hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673)
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY)
National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453

Sources: Chicago Tribune, CNN, MTV News, Yahoo.

All images courtesy of Google Images

The Complete Timeline Of R. Kelly