The R&B superstar, Robert Sylvester Kelly, famously known as R Kelly has been charged with the aggravated sexual assault of four people, including three teenage girls, following years of accusations against him.
He will face a maximum sentence of 70 years in prison if convicted. Kelly, best known for his hit single ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ has for years denied accusations of abuse swirling around him.
In 1994 he married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah, a union that was annulled months later by her parents. In 2008, Kelly was tried and acquitted on child pornography charges in Chicago. Aaliyah died at age 22 in 2001 in a plane crash.
But ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ touched off a new furor on social media when it debuted, prompting his record label, Sony Music-owned RCA, to end its relationship with the hitmaker.
Singer Lady Gaga, who had recorded a sexually suggestive 2013 duet with Kelly, ‘Do What U Want (With My Body)’, apologized for the song, removed it from streaming services and vowed to never work with him again.
It is not immediately clear if the charges announced in Chicago stemmed from accusations made in the documentary or if any of the alleged victims, who were identified in the indictment only by their initials, are the same.
It’s said that it took long to indict R.Kelly because the victims are Black girls. He grew up in a Chicago public housing project where, according to his autobiography, he was sexually abused beginning at age 8.