R. Kelly's sexual misconduct allegations: A timeline

Brut America

R. Kelly’s criminal trial has begun. Here’s a timeline of the sexual misconduct accusations he has faced over the past 30 years.

Transcript

00:00There was the craziness with Aaliyah.

00:29There was a marriage certificate that said he'd married her when she was 18 and he was

00:3427, except she was 15 and that was in all the press surrounding the debut album that

00:40he had written and produced for her, which he called Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number.

01:00Everybody seems to think that y'all are either girlfriend or boyfriend or cousins.

01:04No, we're not related at all.

01:06No, we're not.

01:07We're just very close.

01:08He's my best friend.

01:09Man, cool.

01:10In the whole wide world.

01:11In the whole wide world.

01:29There were whispers throughout the music community throughout Chicago, the black and the black

01:43communities of the South and West sides that Kelly would often cruise high schools and

01:49the Rock and Roll McDonald's and the Evergreen Plaza shopping mall.

02:29Many people will assume that means you were guilty.

02:49Why'd you settle?

02:50At the time, I had a lot of good things in my life going on musically.

02:53This is not a good time to go to court over something like that.

02:57So if you settle, it'd be better.

03:28Six years has been long enough.

03:42We want no more delays.

03:44We want him prosecuted now.

03:54I love R. Kelly and I know he didn't do it.

03:56I know that's not him.

03:58They just want to bring him down and kill his image.

04:00We want him in jail.

04:01There's a tape of him urinating and having sex with a young girl.

04:11Yes, he was acquitted.

04:17But the jurors who saw that video were horrified.

04:21It is the most disgusting and horrible thing I've ever seen in my life.

04:29Do you like teenage girls?

04:33When you say teenage, how are we talking?

04:37Girls who are teenagers.

04:39Nineteen?

04:40Nineteen and younger.

04:43I have some 19-year-old friends.

04:45Got a new album coming out.

04:48Yeah?

04:49What's it called?

05:21She trains you to please him sexually.

05:24Went out there to his tour bus and you have him naked and you have her naked.

05:28He told me to look at her and he said, she's going to teach you everything you need to

05:33know.

05:34Black girls matter!

05:35Black girls matter!

05:36I can't get it out of my mind.

05:50What I saw and what happened.

05:52I want to send a message to anyone who believes she was a victim of R. Kelly's.

06:00Victims should not be ashamed.

06:02Forty-eight women cannot be lying.

06:06Women that I've talked to for 19 years of reporting across the country, separated by

06:11decades, telling the same story, who have never met each other, cannot all be lying.

06:41What are the lies that you're hearing that disturb you most?

06:51Got little girls trapped in the basement, handcuffing people, starving people.

06:55I have a harem, what you call it, a cult.

06:59That's your explanation, they're lying on you.

07:01Absolutely.

07:02I'm fighting for my f***ing life!

07:11This man is the worst predator in the history of popular music, an art form with a long

07:38and ignoble history of men treating women badly.

07:48I was a young girl, the age of 17, walking in the mall, who just wanted to be someone.

07:54Unfortunately, I was preyed upon by Mr. Kelly and his enterprise.

07:59Healing is possible.

08:00I am strong.

08:01I lived it.

08:02I survived it.

08:04And now I seek justice.

08:08For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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