R Kelly charged with bribing official for fake ID that proves Aaliyah was 15-years-old when they married – The Sun

RAPPER R Kelly has been charged with bribing a government official to get a fake ID for the 15-year-old singer he married 25 years ago.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have accused Kelly of bribing an Illinois government worker 1994 to obtain a fake ID for teen starlet Aaliyah, according to the indictment.

It claims the fake ID was to be used to get a marriage license that listed her age as 18.

The new allegation comes after an existing racketeering indictment filed in New York that accuses him of sexually exploiting underage girls and coercing them into illegal sexual activity.

The 52-year-old was this year charged in several jurisdictions on allegations that he sexually abused minors.

BuzzFeed News reports that Aaliyah is the Jane Doe referred to in the court documents.

The pair infamously married a day after Kelly allegedly bribed the official for the fake ID.

At the time, Aaliyah was 15 years old but the marriage license listed her age as 18.

In the past, Kelly's representatives denied that he knew Aaliyah was 15 at the time they were married.

But footage emerged earlier this year appearing to prove that R Kelly DID know Aaliyah was aged 14 months before he married her.

The video shows the young starlet in a recording studio being produced by Kelly, who references her age in a voice-over.

FAKE ID BOMBSHELL

This was said to have been filmed just months before he married her when she was aged 15 – despite his lawyer claiming he never knew her real age when they wed, TMZ reports.

In the 1994 video, Kelly is heard saying: "Right now I'm producing a very talented lady – a young lady. She's 14, Aaliyah."

The Chicago Sun-Times and Vibe claim Kelly and his then 15-year-old protege Aaliyah were illegally married in a secret wedding ceremony on August 31, 1994.

The singers had been introduced to each other three years previously by Aaliyah's uncle. The marriage was annulled in February 1995 at the request of the teen's family.

However, both Kelly and Aaliyah always denied the marriage even took place and insisted their relationship was never more than friends.

In the 2019 documentary Surviving R Kelly, his backing singer Jovante Cunningham claims that she saw the star having sex with a then 15-year-0ld Aaliyah on a tour bus in 1994.

When asked what she saw, the back-up singer replied: “Things that an adult should not be doing with a child. I can’t stress to you how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago."

But Aaliyah’s furious mum, Diane Haughton, later claimed Cunningham was "a liar".

Aaliyah tragically died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22.

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