American R&B singer R. Kelly has faced repeated accusations of sexual abuse for incidents dating from 1991 to 2018 and has been the subject of a long-term investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times since August 2000. He has been tried in multiple civil suits and criminal trials, starting in 1996 and culminating in a 2021 conviction for violations of the Mann Act and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and a 2022 conviction for production of child pornography. Defenders of Kelly maintained that he was merely a "playboy" and a "sex symbol". Judge Ann Donnelly, who presided over Kelly's 2021 trial, summarized Kelly's actions as having "[used] his fame and organization to lure young people into abusive sexual relationships—a racketeering enterprise that the government alleged spanned about 25 years."
Following leaked video recordings, Kelly was prosecuted on child pornography charges in 2002, leading to a controversial trial that ended with his acquittal in 2008 on all charges. In 2018, Kelly released a response track titled "I Admit", in which he refuted claims of sexual abuse, cult leading and pedophilia. The 2019 documentary Surviving R. Kelly reexamined Kelly's sexual misconduct with minors, prompting RCA Records to terminate his contract. Renewed interest in the allegations resulted in additional investigations by law enforcement beginning in 2019, which led to multiple convictions and Kelly's arrest. In 2021 and 2022, he was convicted on multiple charges involving child sexual abuse, and is currently serving a 31-year combined sentence at FCI Butner Medium I.
Early sexual abuse accusations (1990s–2000s)
Illegal marriage (1994)
In 1991, Barry Hankerson introduced his niece Aaliyah to Kelly when she was 12 years old. "I saw her as a star the minute I heard her sing and dance," Kelly said. A witness later testified that Kelly had sexually abused Aaliyah starting when she was "13 or 14 years old." Kelly wrote and produced Aaliyah's debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which was released in May 1994.
On August 31, 1994, Kelly, then 27, married Aaliyah, then 15, in a secret ceremony at Sheraton Gateway Suites in Rosemont, Illinois. Reportedly, Kelly married Aaliyah after he found out she was pregnant. Their marriage certificate was published in the Dec. 1994 / Jan. 1995 issue of Vibe magazine. Their marriage was annulled in February 1995 at the behest of Aaliyah's family by a Michigan judge. In May 1997, Aaliyah filed a lawsuit in Cook County to have the marriage record expunged, stating that she was underage at the time of marriage, had lied by signing the marriage certificate as an 18-year-old, and that she could not legally enter into marriage without parental consent.
Kelly and Aaliyah (who died in 2001) both denied that their relationship had moved beyond friendship. In 2016, Kelly told GQ magazine: "Well, because of Aaliyah's passing ... 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."
In 2019, federal prosecutors in New York State charged Kelly with bribery related to the 1994 purchase of a fake identification card for Aaliyah to obtain a marriage license. Kelly's former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, testified that he facilitated the wedding by obtaining falsified identification for Aaliyah, which listed her as 18 years old. Kelly, through his lawyers, admitted in 2021 to having had "underage sexual contact" with Aaliyah.
Early lawsuits A civil suit filed in 1996 by Tiffany Hawkins alleged that, starting in 1991 when she was aged 15, R. Kelly, aged 24, had sexual relations with her and encouraged her to entice underaged friends. Hawkins' allegations included attempts by Kelly to coerce her into engaging in group sex with her friends. In 1998, Kelly settled the lawsuit with Hawkins for $250,000. In December 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times first reported that police had made two investigations that Kelly was having sex with an underage female but had to drop the investigations due to a lack of cooperation by the accusers.
Exposure of child sexual abuse material and indictment (2002) On February 3, 2002, a video began circulating allegedly depicting Kelly's sexual abuse of a girl known to be underage. The abuse included Kelly, then 35, urinating on her. The video was released by an anonymous source and sent to the Chicago Sun-Times. The publisher broke the story on February 8, 2002, the same day Kelly performed at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Kelly has said in interviews that he was not the man in the video. In June 2002, Kelly was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography. That same month on June 5, 2002, Kelly was arrested by the Miami Police Department on a Chicago arrest warrant at his Florida vacation home. He was released after one night in jail, the following day after posting bail of $750,000.
While investigating the photographs reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, Polk County Sheriff's Office searched Kelly's residence in Davenport, Florida. During the search, officers recovered 12 images of an allegedly underage girl on a digital camera – wrapped in a towel in a duffel bag – which allegedly depicted Kelly "involved in sexual conduct with the female minor". According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the girl in the images obtained from Kelly's Florida home also appears in the videotape, resulting in the original indictment in Chicago.
Police investigators from Polk County and Miami-Dade County arrested Kelly on January 22, 2003, at Miami's Wyndham Grand Bay Hotel for 12 counts of possession of child pornography. Kelly, 36, posted bail of $12,000 bond and was released three hours later from Miami-Dade county jail. In March 2004, when he was 37, these charges were dropped due to a lack of probable cause for the search warrants.
The alleged victim refused to testify at the trial, and a Chicago jury found Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts of child pornography in June 2008. He was 41 years old at the time. Kelly's defense lawyer Ed Genson later questioned the acquittal and Kelly's public proclamations of innocence.
Allegations of child molestation (2009) In a divorce court filing unsealed in 2020, Kelly's ex-wife Andrea Lee claimed Kelly was accused of molesting a preteen girl in 2009. In October 2024, it was revealed that the girl in question was Buku Abi, the elder daughter of Andrea and R. Kelly.
Second series of accusations (2010s–present)
Huffington Post Live interview (2015)
In December 2015, aged 48, Kelly appeared on Huffington Post Live in an interview with journalist Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. The interview was conducted so that he could promote the release of his thirteenth solo album, The Buffet.
During the interview, Modarressy-Tehrani quizzed Kelly about the sexual abuse allegations being leveled against him and wanted to gauge his reaction. This resulted in Kelly repeatedly refusing to answer and walking out of the interview.
Following Kelly's New York conviction in late September 2021, Modarressy-Tehrani tweeted: "Now, with this verdict, hopefully, his survivors get some peace and feel this justice."
Alleged sex cult (2010s) Jim DeRogatis reported for BuzzFeed News on July 17, 2017, that Kelly, then 50, was accused by three sets of parents of holding their daughters in an "abusive cult". Kelly and the alleged victims denied the allegations.
In March 2018, the BBC World Service aired the documentary R. Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes, presented by reporter Ben Zand, which explored allegations from 2017. The title references the film Sex, Lies, and Videotape, produced by Harvey Weinstein, whose own sexual assault charges emerged around the same time as those against Kelly. This was followed up in May with the BBC Three documentary R Kelly: The Sex Scandal Continues, which included interviews with the Savage family.
Kelly, then 51, was again accused of misconduct on April 17, 2018, by a former partner of his who claimed that Kelly "intentionally" infected her with a sexually transmitted infection. A representative for Kelly stated that he "categorically denies all claims and allegations".
In a January 2019 BBC News article, a woman named Asante McGee whom Kelly had met in 2014 and taken to live with him some months later, said that she lived with not only Kelly but also other women. She said: "He controlled every aspect of my life, while I lived with him." McGee later moved out on her own accord.
Boycott and industry response In May 2018, the Women of Color branch of the Time's Up movement called for a boycott of Kelly's music and performances over the many allegations against him. The boycott was accompanied by a social media campaign called Mute R. Kelly. In response, his management said that Kelly supports the movement in principle, but targeting him was "the attempted lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture".
Music streaming service Spotify announced on May 10, 2018, that it was going to stop promoting or recommending music by Kelly, XXXTentacion and Tay-K, stating, "We don't censor content because of an artist's or creator's behavior, but we want our editorial decisions—what we choose to program—to reflect our values." Two days later, Apple Music and Pandora also announced that they would cease to feature or promote Kelly's music. With the launch of its "Hate Content and Hateful Conduct" policy, Spotify was criticized by members of the music industry with concerns the decision would create a "slippery slope" of muting artists accused of criminal activity. Spotify reversed this decision, following a social media backlash including that of Kendrick Lamar and his former record label, Top Dawg Entertainment, which both threatened to remove their respective individual discography and label musical catalog from the streaming service. XXXTentacion was later recovered on the platform's playlists and recommendations, but Kelly and Tay-K remained removed.
On July 23, 2018, Kelly released a response track titled "I Admit" via SoundCloud. On "I Admit", he disputes claims of sexual abuse, cult leading and pedophilia. However, he claims to have had casual sex with "both young and old ladies". Kelly also scrutinizes the Mute R. Kelly campaign, Jim DeRogatis, Time's Up and others for attempting to blackball him. In reference to his 1994 marriage to Aaliyah, he says it was "love." He remains silent on his 2002 indictment for producing child sexual abuse material, maintaining his lawyer suggested that he says "noth". He responds to Mute R. Kelly, stating "only God can mute me" and supports Bill Cosby who was convicted of similar cases. Kelly also invites Chicago to use his image as inspiration for city youth. The chorus repeats "I admit it, I did it", despite the fact that Kelly never expressed admission to any allegations levied against him. The song was criticized on social media and dubbed as an act of trolling.
In early January 2019, Kelly was dropped from RCA Records following the airing of Surviving R. Kelly, which detailed numerous sexual assault allegations against the singer for decades. Several musicians who collaborated with Kelly expressed regret for working with him, including Celine Dion ("I'm Your Angel"), Nick Cannon ("Gigolo"), The Pussycat Dolls ("Out of This Club"), Chance the Rapper ("Somewhere in Paradise"), Ciara (the "Go & Get Your Tickets" remix to her 2006 single, "Promise"), Lady Gaga ("Do What U Want"), and Jennifer Hudson ("It's Your World"). Some went as far as having streaming services remove their songs that featured his vocals or credited him for songwriting or production.