My understanding of what happened
Between robert and aaliyah dana haughton
Begins with barry hankerson,
Who was the manager who oversaw kelly's rise to superstardom.
He had a niece, aaliyah dana haughton,
And hankerson paired aaliyah with kelly.
Is your estrangement from your sister related to r. Kelly?
Yes. I think my sister knew a lot more than what we thought she knew.
There was some type of rapport my sister had with robert kelly
That began to creep in to our lives.
There are questions that only barry hankerson and diane haughton can answer.
( theme music playing )
Taryn finley: Narcissism, delusion,
Menace, manipulation.
- It felt evil. - He didn't do it alone.
There was an enterprise.
They began in '94 with aaliyah.
There are so many people that enabled r. Kelly--
Bodyguards, entourage, assistants.
- They were sick just like him. - These girls were in danger and nothing was being done.
Everybody had a financial incentive to look the other way.
Woman: He made a lot of money for a lot of people.
The halo effect makes them look at him as more powerful.
He's a predator, and a predator needs to be put down.
I don't think he should be charged alone.
It's not over for anybody.
Everyone in r. Kelly's operation needs to go to jail.
Everyone.
Aaliyah is key to everything.
Jovante cunningham: She's been gone a very long time.
She's no longer here.
Breaking story out of the bahamas tonight.
Authorities have confirmed that r&b singer and actress aaliyah
Is among eight people killed in a plane crash.
Aaliyah was only 22 years old.
Reporter: Aaliyah's family is devastated
At the loss of their loving daughter and sister.
Reporter: Along with two grammy nominations and a platinum album,
The singer had recently launched a film career.
Jovante cunningham: I thought I was gonna go to my grave
With nobody ever knowing what happened to me,
What happened to aaliyah.
She can't speak for herself,
But to be able to be a voice for her
Was one of the most beautiful things.
I think my heart was gonna jump out of my throat
As I was standing outside of the door
To enter the courtroom.
It was very surreal.
Reporter: Today, jurors heard testimony
About kelly's marriage to the late singer aaliyah.
Reporter: R. Kelly was 27, and aaliyah was just 15 years old.
Reporter: Jane doe #1, how she met r. Kelly.
- Kelly and aaliyah... - Jane doe...
Aaliyah's name was said within the first ten minutes
Of the prosecution's opening statements
For the first time in a criminal court
In what is no exaggeration
The biggest scandal in the history of popular music.
Angela yee: The attorney, she said, "this case is about a predator
And a network of people at his disposal
To target, groom, and exploit young girls, boys, and women
For his own sexual gratification."
When you start with aaliyah, you start with a large scheme.
That shows you grooming, that shows you how young,
That shows that nothing has changed,
That lays the framework for the pattern.
We actually learned a lot about aaliyah during this trial,
Which was pretty sad.
She was jane doe #1, and of course,
She's not alive to tell her own story.
Pilar melendez: Obviously, aaliyah is such
A central figure in the history of r. Kelly,
But since she died so young,
A lot of people don't know the details of their relationship
Or what actually happened--
The actual annulment of their wedding,
How r. Kelly actually raped another girl
Two days after he married aaliyah.
We've never heard of that before.
So it was shocking for people like myself
That grew up aaliyah but didn't know the details,
Or people in the press corps that had been doing music
As their career for 15, 20 years
That had been waiting for this knew more than I did
And still were shocked by the details that were coming out.
Aaliyah's first album is made by r. Kelly,
And it's called "age ain't nothing but a number."
The title song is about a young girl
Who's trying to get an older guy to go all the way with her.
♪ age ain't nothing but a number ♪
♪ throwing down ain't nothing but a thing ♪
We adultified her.
We did not see her as a victim,
As someone who also needed us to rally around her.
Look at all the opportunities that we as a community,
As a culture, as consumers of music
Had chance after chance after chance to say,
"no, we don't deal with this person."
No, he was able to record music
And perform at the olympics and win awards
And be considered, you know, just an important figure
In his industry for so long.
It is incredibly unfortunate that his traumas
Took him down this road.
It however does not remove the responsibility
Of society to prevent him from traumatizing others.
While r. Kelly sat in a courtroom in brooklyn,
Right across the water in downtown manhattan
Was a gigantic billboard with aaliyah.
A three-story billboard, aaliyah, eyes closed,
In an almost christ-like position.
"aaliyah is coming,"
Advertising the return of her music
To streaming services timed to the start of the trial.
That was no coincidence.
The world was really excited last Friday
When they were able to finally get ahold
Of "one in a million" on streaming,
Today being the 20th anniversary
Of the tragic passing of aaliyah.
- Mm-hmm. - Was it targeted to try
To match up with the date as far having it release,
Or it just kinda happened that way?
- It just kinda happened that way. - Okay.
It was distasteful timing.
Why not let her spirit get the vindication that it needs
For what took place?
As far as I'm concerned,
She was used as a means to generate more revenue.
My name is nakia vestal, and I met r. Kelly
In November of '94.
I was 18 years old.
I had just graduated high school.
And he's like, "oh, my god.
You're so pretty. Can you sing?"
And I was like, "no, I can dance."
You know, I just thought it was a joke or whatever.
November 1994,
I became r. Kelly's backup dancer.
I just remember hearing on the radio,
I was in houston driving to work
And barry hankerson, his former manager,
Was saying, "oh, when I found out about
Him messing with my niece aaliyah,
I stopped working with him."
November '94, when I met him, barry was still his manager.
Barry ate breakfast with us.
I remember barry hankerson going on "dr. Oz"
And promoting her music.
What did you do when you learned that r. Kelly
Had illegally married your niece aaliyah?
Went crazy, and I made myself known, obviously,
To robert kelly, and I've never spoken to him again to this day.
So, I met barry hankerson in 1995 in January
When I was 17 years old, after the annulment
Of the marriage between aaliyah and robert.
For him to be sitting there with underage girls
Knowing what he had just done to his niece,
I don't know if I really have a lot
Of respect for this person.
And it just seemed so calculated
That her music is coming out during a trial.
I went to the owner of jive records and said,
"I can't be here anymore. I have to go.
Aaliyah has to go."
Barry's full of ( bleep ).
Barry knew exactly what was going on.
I was for not having any linkage to robert kelly at all.
I remember coming back
Off of tour and robert saying
That he wasn't gonna renew his management contract with barry.
And barry saying,
"if you don't renew my management contract,
I'm gonna pull the plug on you and aaliyah."
And robert didn't.
Or so I thought.
And maybe two, three days later
Is when we found out about the marriage.
I didn't know anything about it either,
But I remember thinking to myself,
"you dirty ( bleep ).
You would do this to your niece?
You're okay with this type of behavior?
Wow."
The charge relating to jane doe #1,
Later to be revealed to be aaliyah,
Demetrius smith had to be offered immunity
Because he did not want to participate,
But obviously they needed him.
These crimes that we heard in the courtroom
Stretch back to about 30 years
Because kelly was surrounded by enablers.
The prosecution said, "aaliyah told kelly she was pregnant at age 15."
Demetrius smith is asked, "well, why else did he want to marry her?"
And demetrius says, "to stay out of jail,"
Because it was statutory rape of a minor.
Hip-hop star r. Kelly did indeed marry his protégé,
The 15-year-old singer aaliyah haughton.
Robert was scared. We didn't know how to do it.
We had to figure it out.
And me being the street man,
I had to get her id.
And so I took her to the county building,
And we got a public aid id.
We knew people that were the photographers
That give you ids, and they did it.
Kathryn m. Martin: The other thing
That the jane doe #1 aaliyah charge does
Is brings in a lot of other people in the enterprise.
That's important because that brings in the bribery.
That brings in the marriage license issues.
That brings in the pastor, which all become part
Of the charges to the racketeering.
We learned a lot about the wedding.
It was really sad.
We heard from the pastor who conducted the wedding.
It sounds like it was a really quick thing. It took a couple minutes.
It was in a hotel room. They wore matching track suits.
No one that aaliyah loved was there.
It was her, r. Kelly, the pastor,
A couple of r. Kelly's buddies. She was alone.
Then, you know, they perform this quickie marriage ceremony,
He gets on a flight, and he flies off
To one of his concerts without her, leaves her alone.
I was in the room when they got married. I'm not proud of that.
I had papers forged for them, got the marriage license,
And I think if he'd have just waited to have married aaliyah,
They would've been so beautiful.
They'd probably travel around the world
Just being a silly couple.
'cause robert was her age in mind, okay?
It's not like he was 27 years old,
And she was 16 and, you know--
She was...
How the hell did 27-year-old r. Kelly
Get away with marrying 15-year-old aaliyah
And it was just merely a salacious piece of gossip?
Nobody did anything.
I can't believe that.
Demetrius smith: You see, I wanted to be loyal to everybody.
And it didn't work out that wy
Because everybody was on their own agenda.
You know, barry had his thoughts.
There are questions that only barry hankerson and diane haughton can answer.
Is your estrangement from your sister
- Related to r. Kelly? - Yes.
I think my sister knew a lot more than what we thought she knew.
There was some type of rapport my sister had
With robert kelly that began to creep into our lives.
Aaliyah's parents were like the cosbys, you know?
Mike and diane were just awesome people.
They trusted me. They trusted us.
Kathryn m. Martin: During the trial, there was specific testimony brought out,
Actually by the defense, which I was surprised about,
Asking questions about aaliyah's mother
And the nature of her involvement.
And I think it's important as we look at barry hankerson
And his communication with dr. Oz
To think of what could have been going on
Having to do with the mother.
It's hard to say. We'll never really know.
But we do know that people that were there
Feel a certain type of way, specifically barry hankerson.
What has your sister done that you oppose, that bothers you?
I really can't get into that, but it's something one day
I hope she comes to grips with.
Jim derogatis: There's more to be said there,
Questions that I think aaliyah deserves to have answered.
Now that she has been exposed in the criminal court,
I think she deserves to finish the story.
Jim derogatis: There are questions that only barry hankerson
And diane haughton can answer.
I refuse to cover up anybody else's stuff ever again in my life.
I don't care who it is.
After the documentary aired,
Diane hurt my feelings really bad
By stating publicly I had never been around her daughter,
Didn't know her, I was a forked-tongue devil.
Diane haughton, you know exactly who I am.
I still got my caller id box at home
With y'all home number on it from back then.
Yeah, I still got it. Still got it.
So for you to say that was disheartening
'cause it's not about you all. It's about what happened to her.
And if you wanted to talk about it,
Why not talk about it from a period of transparency,
Not with a bunch of lies and garbage.
( distorted voice ) I would hear him degrade their mothers to them,
And he would tell the girls that their mothers wanted him,
That their mothers were jealous of them
Because they were young girls, they were fine girls,
Their mothers were fat.
You know, making them feel like,
"I want you, but your mother wants me."
So if the mom is around, then it's almost like a contest
Between the mother and the daughter.
Azriel, for one,
He told her that her mother was jealous of her,
That he had mother some years back
After one of his shows, and her mother wanted him.
It made me see him in a different light,
And it made me realize that he was a manipulator.
Alanna vagianos: I get really upset when people say,
"where were the parents?"
When you have a multi-million dollar celebrity
Who is at the top of his game and comes to you and says,
"I can give your child every single dream she's ever wanted,"
Because most of these girls were aspiring singers,
That's grooming of the parents as well.
It's easier to blame others
Rather than accept that there's an individual
In our society that can be so evil and sick.
And so I think that's kind of the easy go-to,
"let me blame the parents."
Blame the real person. R. Kelly.
Blame the people that surround him that are allowing him
To victimize these girls over and over again.
That's where the blame really lies.
I wasn't a dancer. I was a feature in one of his music videos,
"playas only" with r. Kelly, featuring the game.
Maybe 2000 or so.
Yeah, it was a little bit later on.
I was 16 years old when I met rob in 1993.
My friends and I went to his show
And he was there with other artists,
And I just remember his voice was just amazing.
It was really captivating.
After the show, my girlfriend and I were waiting outside.
We were getting ready to go to our cars,
And a limousine pulls up
And rob lifts his head up, and, you know,
Introduces himself to me.
And he was like, "well, I would really love to get to know you,
So why don't you take my room key?
You can go up there and wait for me. I promise I'll be back."
So his road manager set everything up
For my friends and I to go up to the room.
And rob, he came back.
We stayed in touch.
Every day I spoke to him after that.
Rob used to come up to the school.
He would have the tour bus sitting outside my high school
Waiting for me to get out.
He attended my high school graduation.
I mean, he was very, very involved.
With my mom being against us dating,
When she found out that I was still speaking to him
After she had forbid me to do it, she put me out.
It should've woke me up at that time
Because she's knowing things
That I'm not seeing, being so young.
But when I graduated high school,
I went to go live with him.
He was really controlling.
Certain things he liked sexually,
He liked it his way.
I did not know how to arch my back.
And when I tell you...
...He literally had me
With a camera prepped up, like, um,
Having me sit in this position to learn how to arch my back.
Literally hours being in this position.
He would even take breaks.
He would come back and check on me
To see if I was still in that same position,
Meanwhile keeping the camera on
To see if I moved when he asked me not to.
He was wanting to groom me to be the person
That he wanted me to be for him.
Just for him.
Oh, gosh. That's a touchy one.
Everyone started talking about rob and aaliyah.
I would always ask him about him and aaliyah,
And he would deny it.
But, you know, being on tour with him,
I noticed a lot of similarities between she and I.
Now looking back, I feel like I was kind of like a body double for her.
I noticed that when people would photograph us
Getting off the bus that we did--
Aaliyah and I did have similarities.
I met her once in the studio,
But most of the time when aaliyah came around
Rob would have her in a separate room.
I'm thinking to myself, "it's just him working with his artist," you know?
When he and I lived together going into college,
I was left at the house for hours, bored.
So, you know, I see, like, this basket full of tapes,
So I'm like, "well, maybe I'll just grab one of these tapes
And let me go in the other rooms
And see if there's a vhs
So I can watch a movie," you know?
Because I was bored.
That's when I discovered that he had been lying to me about aaliyah.
He records everything, so...
The tape that I put in, uh,
Was, uh, him and aaliyah together.
What I saw on that tape was he and aaliyah being intimate.
They were on the tour bus,
And everything that I had asked him,
It was confirmed on the tape.
In the bedroom in the house that we shared,
It has a sensor.
It lets you know when someone's in there.
I don't know if it sent some bell ringing in his ear,
Like, "she's found something that maybe she shouldn't be watching,"
Because he came home, and I heard the car,
You know, coming, pulling up, and him coming inside the house.
I just remember trying to put the tape back
Where I got it from before he saw that I had had it.
So I'm, you know, trying to hurry up,
And as I've put it back and coming up to the door,
He's standing face to face with me like, "what were you doing?"
And I'm, like, froze up because I was still trying to process
What I had just saw on this tape,
But then not show anger to him
Because I didn't wanna trigger him to,
Like, you know, be angry.
I just remember just a hard shake like,
"what were you doing?" like, "what were you--"
He wanted me to tell him exactly what I saw, but I was terrified.
I was like, "this is what everybody is talking about,
And I've asked him, and he's not told me the truth,
So what do I do now?"
Like, I was just-- I was terrified.
But that shake sent me down flights of stairs,
And I just laid there, just froze.
That was the moment that I realized
To pick and choose my battles.
I'm sorry. Can I take a break really quick?
- Man: Yeah. Is everything okay? - I apologize.
Of course. Do you want to take a moment?
- Yeah, I just... - Water?
Uh, a tissue please.
- I'm so sorry. - Totally fine.
Can you ask diondra to come here?
Please? Thank you.
Diondra: Are you okay? Just-- it's about--
Just tell your story, okay? That's your power.
- Yeah. I know. - And don't second guess it.
Like, I loved him.
I love him. He's still important to me.
- Man: Mm-hmm. Yeah. - And so he's not some horrible man to me.
And I don't want people to think that, like--
I just with that he would get the help he needs.
Diondra: And that is something that you can--
And that is something that you can say.
'cause he's not a bad person. Like, he just does bad things.
Does that make...
He groomed you to be conflicted like this.
- I know. - You were impressionable. You were 16 years old.
I just notice certain things that I'm saying out loud...
- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. - ...Is a trigger for me.
I notice that some of these things
Have affected me in my adult relationships,
The things that maybe I didn't think were so harmful for me,
- But they really were. - Yeah, babe.
But we gonna bounce back from it
And we gonna get better.
Like, when I say he shook me,
He pushed me down the stairs, you know?
But, like...
- He pushed you down the stairs, boo. - I know.
Because he was upset because you found a tape that could put him in jail.
That was illegal, what he was doing.
I know. So bad.
Abuse happens often with elements of shame, degradation.
For many survivors, there's a sense of,
"I don't want that to have just happened to me."
So there's a reflexive minimization that happens
So that it just takes up less space in your life.
And over time it begins to intrude in your experience.
You avoid going to places, talking to people.
I think I've just suppressed these feelings for so long.
No, no, honey.
This is an empowering moment.
You're taking your power back today.
Dr. Jody adewale: When we talk about trauma,
We often don't get into the gritty details
Because sometimes that can re-traumatize the person
And can make the sadness
And the anger and the fear worse.
There's a reason that we filter out some information
Because it's just not good for you.
The trauma fractured your sense of self.
The trauma fractured your sense of safety.
So I encourage survivors
To change the way they look at it as,
"I'm regaining power
And I'm taking back my sense of safety."
Ebonié doyle: After that aaliyah situation,
With him lying to me and not being completely honest,
I wanted to try to have, like, a more normal relationship
With someone who wasn't a superstar,
Who wasn't getting all this attention
From other people and stuff.
So I ended up dating a frat guy.
I did get pregnant, and things didn't work out
With me and my daughter's father.
So I ended up going back to rob.
He was willing to take care of my daughter
Like she was his, you know?
Before I even made the decision to do this,
I had to speak my daughter
Because she was around for a lot of it.
You know, "uncle robert" this and that,
And then all of a sudden he's no longer there.
I didn't want her to be embarrassed of her mom.
I wanted her to kind of know that it's my life
And this is my truth.
I started distancing myself for numerous reasons with rob,
But there was an instance with rob.
You know, um, I went to go visit him.
And I just remember going to his house with my oldest daughter.
She was 12 years old, and...
We got in his car,
And he wanted to take my daughter to get mcdonalds.
So, I just remember I'm sitting in the front seat.
My daughter's sitting in the backseat,
And I'm actually having a conversation with my legs crossed towards him
Because that's what he-- you know, his rules were.
So I'm looking at him having a conversation,
And he's looking at...
He's looking at my daughter in the backseat
In the rearview mirror with the weirdest look on his face.
And it freaked me out.
So I just remember, like...
Um, I just remember
After we got our food,
Um, I just remember leaving.
I never took her back over there.
I never had her around him.
I can't really say it was a look I recognized,
And maybe I'm blocking things out.
Um...
It was uncomfortable, and...
...And I just-- I didn't like it.
Right.
We've been a part of each other's lives for 21 years.
We've only talked twice.
Very different circumstances today.
First story, December 21, 2000.
Tiffany hawkins: I was the first girl,
And nobody believed me.
Demetrius smith: Tiffany was a singer.
Her relationship with robert was music,
And we introduced her to aaliyah
And she began to sing background on aaliyah's album.
Tiffany hawkins: My sexual relationship with robert
Began several months after meeting him.
My witness list consisted of aaliyah, javante,
And several other women, people in robert's camp.
Definitely enough for me to be taken seriously,
But I wasn't.
After my lawsuit, I never spoke about this
Up until maybe a year and a half ago,
And it was to jim derogatis.
He's one of the few people
That believed from the very beginning robert had a problem,
And that I, along with the other people
That had spoken out at that point,
Were not lying.
I gotta apologize.
It had to be one of the ( bleep ) days of your life
When I splashed you on the front page of "sun times."
And they're all saying "accusations."
- Yeah. - They're not saying "whistleblower."
- Right. - In new york, the story the prosecution told
Over six weeks with 45 witnesses
And hundreds of pieces of evidence,
It starts in '91, and that's you.
How did it feel to have somebody telling the story
Of those earliest years finally in a court of law?
I was happy that women were being heard.
For all the years I was the girl that lied on r. Kelly,
Finally people are believing that this happened.
He really is that monster. That really is him.
Had aaliyah come forward and said,
- "hey, this happened to me." - yeah.
It would've some validity to all of our stories, you know?
Tiffany hawkins: This is barry hankerson's niece,
Gladys knight's niece. Her family, they have money.
They live in a nice, affluent neighborhood, you know what I mean?
And we are the hood girls.
But we also heard in federal court,
"why did they get married?" he wanted to avoid jail.
That was testimony in brooklyn.
- Yep. - No, I was not familiar
With how the annulment happened with aaliyah.
When we went back on the road, it was holiday time.
I bought sweaters and gifts for aaliyah for christmas,
Delivered the stuff, and they didn't want it.
They sent it all back. Robert hurt them, man.
Robert hurt them. Robert hurt them.
Gem pratts: What I heard happened to cause the annulment
Was her father said this is not gonna fly.
I've heard that they made a contractual arrangement.
He wasn't gonna press charges against robert
And robert had to sell the rights
To his first three albums to the haughton family.
It caused a, uh, what I remember is strain
With barry hankerson being aaliyah's uncle.
I remember aaliyah's father was furious,
And that was part of the annulment pretty immediately
When he found out about it.
And rob, he seemed heartbroken.
Her dad didn't want her anywhere near him,
So subsequently she moves to the east coast,
And kind of hooks up with timbaland
And starts her second album.
The homeland security agent who took the stand
Brought in and they admitted into evidence
An annulment document.
Within the annulment
There was additionally a document
That was basically what reads as one of the first ndas
That was probably created to hide and keep forever buried
What happened specifically between them,
Whether it was physical abuse, sexual abuse,
Mental abuse against a minor.
What I read that, I was horrified.
We're talking about a child.
If r. Kelly did not sexually or physically abuse aaliyah,
Why did he have to put it in writing?
This legal document
Was kind of a light bulb that went off for kelly.
He realized he could use ndas to further control his victims in the future.
As part of the annulment agreement,
Aaliyah and r. Kelly agreed to sever all ties,
And her family promised not to hold kelly liable
For further physical or emotional trauma from the relationship
All in exchange for a payment of $100 by kelly.
Other sources say the figure was actually $3 million.
I'm probably two to three years older than aaliyah is,
Or would've been at this point.
So if she had gotten married at approximately 15,
I was approximately 17 or 18.
And so I remember thinking that's quite young
To get committed to someone else,
Particular someone who's so senior to you.
I think as a young girl we have crushes on people,
And we have crushes on our teachers
And, you know, older people.
We might have had their poster hanging up in the room.
You might have them as a screensaver.
But if that person meets you,
They should never want to even look at you
In that manner, you know?
I just think that's a sickness.
This trial, this is all performative.
This is all protocol.
It's someone getting due process.
But at the end of the day, we already know
What has been going on here.
You know, this goes back to aaliyah.
And when you see the people who were there
Speak about having witnessed that...
Hmm.
This is not a witch hunt.
This is the silencing of a monster.
It was really sad learning as much as we did about aaliyah.
I think two or three days after marrying her,
R. Kelly was back at his own concert
And raped another girl.
For anybody who still wants to continue with the myth
That he and aaliyah were true love,
You know, the heartbroken guy who thought he had true love
And just married the love of his life,
And in less than a week,
Another sexual assault allegation.
The fact that one of the victims who testified is addie,
Claimed to have been raped by kelly
Just within days of the aaliyah marriage was mind-blowing.
Addie was jane doe #8.
Addie's allegations were not part of any of the charges
That jurors had to deliberate on.
She was just there to prove
That r. Kelly had predatory pattern of behavior.
I know addie from 2019 when she contacted me
And said that she wanted to talk to me about r. Kelly.
She's from miami. She's puerto rican.
We were, like, the same.
I didn't know she was gonna testify.
She never told me.
It happened to her in 1994.
She met him at a concert.
And I met him in 1995.
She went to the one where aaliyah was supposed to be there.
One of the most interesting things about addie's testimony
Was seeing how it fit on the timeline
Of r. Kelly's pattern of abuse.
Aaliyah and r. Kelly got married on August 31st, 1994.
Aaliyah and r. Kelly were supposed to perform together
At the superfest concert in miami.
But aaliyah didn't go, to the shock of many fans that were there,
Because she had gotten married,
And from the standpoint of r. Kelly,
Was expecting a baby at 15 years old.
All of us journalists that were listening to her, we were all just in shock
That r. Kelly, two days after forging documents
To marry 15-year-old aaliyah,
He didn't even blink an eyelash when it came to addie.
He was just like, "oh, I solved my aaliyah problem,
And now I can continue to do everything that I like to do."
There were other people in the room.
The grown adults walked out the room
And left her in there alone.
Nobody stood up for her. Nobody said this was wrong.
I was in shock. The things that she detailed, I mean, he raped her.
It shows that r. Kelly didn't think he was really doing anything wrong at all,
That he thought he was above any sort of wrongdoing that could be placed on him.
I called her right away,
And I said, "oh, my god. How do you feel?"
And she said, "I feel so much better."
And I was like, "really? You weren't nervous or anything on the stand?"
And she was like, "no. I'm not afraid to speak out.
I was back then, but I feel so much better
That I was able to get on the stand and see him and speak my truth."
I'm very proud of her.
We're talking about a post #metoo era.
We're talking about a time where women are more willing
To speak up and speak their truths.
So this incredible icon,
Even though she was no longer on this planet,
He was getting what he deserved.
If that isn't the greatest redemption, then I don't know what is.
I know you guys are used to hearing me talk about other people's experiences,
And people inbox me all the time,
"hey, did anything ever happen to you?
Why didn't you talk about yourself? Are you ashamed?"
And the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Who wants to be associated with this?
This is not a badge of honor.
It's not something that you gloat in.
It's not something that you delight in.
Who wants to be a part of a human trafficking ring
Or even admit that that even happened to them?
People ostracize you, you're set aside.
The people that you expect to support you the most
Treat you the worst.
So I wasn't ready to deal with that.
It wasn't something that I ever thought
Would ever come to forefront.
Never thought anybody would ever know
What happened to me.
My information, where I was working,
Had been placed out for public view
And I was being harassed.
And at that moment, in that hour,
Because I had been so quiet for so long,
I was like, "why are you picking on me?
I'm the least vocal out of everyone."
And then I got angry.
If you're sending these people,
If you know these people.
You don't get to do this.
And so I thought about my daughter
And what I would want her to do and how I would support her,
And I was like, "no."
The only way that any of this will stop
Is if you're exposed.
And not speaking out all this time
Only afforded him the ability to continue to do it
Over and over and over again.
It wasn't about me, tiffany, aaliyah.
It was about anyone's daughter, anyone's son.
This has to stop, and it has to stop now.
I'm not keeping your garbage. I'm telling.
One of my regrets as a reporter is that I did not realize
That kelly had methodically
Made his way through second chapter.
Three high school girls from the south side of chicago
Who get to travel to paris, amsterdam,
Rome, london, singing behind their best friend,
A couple years younger than they are-- aaliyah.
And kelly simultaneously is sexually abusing
Each of those young women and their friends.
We went through a lot. We experienced a lot.
We saw a lot. Um...
It was a period of time
When we were just trying to make it.
We had big dreams, and we thought we were gonna be somebody.
A lot of people who loved and adored him.
And I can't stress to you enough how people are still suffering
Behind things that went on 20 years ago.
I didn't know I was going to be a part of the investigation.
I had no idea.
Finding out that I was one of the jane does
Was a bittersweet moment.
I was willing to be forthcoming where I had not.
I called my dad.
And I said, "they got him."
He said, "jo, what you mean?"
And he really didn't understand
Because I never really told him
Because he was always so proud of the fact
That he thought that I got away.
And I said, "dad, what's done in the dark always comes to light."
I lost my dad. The funeral was the first day of the trial.
The idea of having to take that on by myself,
I was scared out my mind.
But...
I understood if I didn't, it was gonna all fall apart.
There wasn't any way around it.
The day that I had to take the stand
Was very surreal.
The authorities do not prep you for trial.
They tell you to tell the truth. That's it.
I had my stare face on. I would look that way
When I finally got into a seat where I could see him,
But his head was down.
Now here's the thing.
I met him at 14.75,
So that means right before my 15th birthday.
Unfortunately, my very first experience
Was my very first time meeting him.
Without going into details, let's just say
Sexual misconduct with minors, period.
People have asked me, and I would always say,
"oh, not me. Not me."
Because there was a level of shame
That comes with that.
I was in situation where
I was pressured to do things
That I just didn't really wanna do.
Larry hood got right up there and validated everything
That had came out of my mouth on accident.
He didn't even mean to do that.
Aaliyah's not from chicago.
For you to say, "oh, those were here little friends,"
Well, let's just say this.
How the hell would she get some friends here?
How would she have known us? Explain that part.
You can't.
The very first night that I met robert, he was at robert's home.
Him and demetrius smith and-=-
Yes. Yes, bruce was there as well.
Bruce and carey were around all the time.
Bruce was always out on the road with us and around the studio.
The boys knew. What I mean by the boys, I mean the brothers.
They knew. They knew.
I went to europe in 1995, and that was, like--
I think that was the second part of his european "12 play" tour.
So he had killer and bruce around him,
And then demetrius, barry hankerson,
And I just remember there was always young girls around backstage.
Like, they were young.
They looked like they were 13, 14 years old.
You could tell by their skin they're not fully developed.
I'm just looking like, "something don't seem right."
And I guess they all knew. Nobody cared.
Everybody was just happy to get a check and be on the road
And to live that hollywood celebrity life.
Nobody would say, "oh, they're young."
Nobody cared.
I was not in a relationship with him. I wasn't a girlfriend.
I wasn't somebody who was trying to date him.
We were told that it was paying our dues,
And that either we were gonna sing
Or we were gonna go to school,
And to make a decision.
And if we were gonna sing,
"take your shirt off. Dance for me."
I never thought anybody would ever know.
So many times people said I wasn't where I was,
That I wasn't doing what I said I was doing.
And in that hour, god reminded me
That what happened to me was not insignificant.
I was not just some stupid little girl,
That I was a child, and that what happened to me
Not only would it be brought to public light,
But that he would be penalized and punished finally.
Speaking out gave me my power back.
It gave me my voice back.
I can't heal if I'm hiding.
I lost a lot of things this year,
A lot of people,
But I found me.
I was so proud of myself.
I no longer had anything
That somebody could hold over my head
Because I had spoke for myself, and that brought me joy.
I had to be confident within myself and believe in me
And know that not only did I survive,
I survived r. Kelly.
Sonia was a radio intern and thought she was gonna come for an interview.
Sonia: I ended up waking up on the couch
Feeling extremely tired, so confused.
And then r. Kelly was doing up his pants.
She was locked in a room, not really given much to eat or drink.
Sonia: So I didn't understand, like, really what was happening.
A jury began deliberations today
In the federal trial of singer r. Kelly.
- How's your client feeling? - Stressed.
I would imagine r. Kelly was nervous.
Jury! R. Kelly is an innocent man!
If it comes back not guilty,
People are gonna really give it to us then,
Make us out to be liars.
People that have money that are guilty, they walk.
The first trial, they had videos,
And he was still acquitted.
After this incredible push led by black women,
Is this really going to happen?