Pregnancy rumors, an illegal marriage, and wild claims about the plane crash that took her life. Some of the stranger details about Aaliyah's life and death are only now being scrutinized.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Pregnancy rumors, an illegal marriage, and wild claims about the plane crash that took
00:04her life — some of the stranger details about Aaliyah's life and death are only now
00:08being scrutinized.
00:09By the time she was in her early teens, Aaliyah was already honing her craft as a future R&B
00:14star and recording her debut album. Released in 1994, Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number was
00:19greeted by the listening public with a great deal of warmth, and the album soon went platinum.
00:23Aaliyah was just 15 at the time of its release, and its title is seemingly a reference to
00:27the level of talent she was able to demonstrate while still legally a minor. Today, though,
00:31the name comes across as particularly creepy, especially when taken in light of the superstar
00:35producer who was responsible for a great deal of the music on it, R. Kelly.
00:39Kelly took a major role in crafting the sound of her debut album, but rumors later emerged
00:43that the R&B star had started a sexual relationship with Aaliyah, and the pair had illegally married.
00:48Things came to a head when Vibe published a bombshell article featuring their marriage
00:52certificate. On it, Aaliyah had seemingly lied about her age, claiming she was 18, while
00:56R. Kelly was 27 years old at the time.
00:58"...Roberts does his thing, I'm doing my thing. He's a great producer, great artist, who I
01:02do admire."
01:04As rumors about R. Kelly and Aaliyah swirled, her team sought to minimize the damage the
01:08scandal might do to her career. Speaking to Vibe, former Jive A&R Jeff Sledge said the
01:12atmosphere at the label became tense after the revelations. He said,
01:15"...it was a horrible scandal, a horrible situation for everybody involved, so we tried
01:19to keep the focus on the music and the videos."
01:21But once Vibe did that article, it definitely put a whole different energy around the project
01:25and about her and Kelly. The marriage was reportedly annulled shortly after. Aaliyah's
01:29work relationship with Kelly was also severed, and record executive Damon Dash later claimed
01:33that Aaliyah wanted the singer to be kept away from her in the months following the
01:37scandal. Aaliyah refused to discuss the nature of her relationship with Kelly for the rest
01:40of her life, making the subject a no-go area for journalists. Kelly was similarly tight-lipped.
01:45At Kelly's 2021 trial, his former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, claimed that in 1994, Aaliyah
01:51believed she was pregnant. It has been suggested that the marriage was concocted so that she
01:55could get an abortion with the approval of a spouse, rather than her parents. Kelly is
01:59now behind bars after being found guilty of multiple sex crimes.
02:03Scrutiny of Aaliyah's love life continued into adulthood, and she was often the focus
02:07of media speculation related to the famous men she may or may not have been dating. Of
02:11course, celebrity gossip has remained a huge source of entertainment in the decades since
02:14the singer's death. But when she was alive, the culture around celebrities' private lives
02:18was hugely intrusive, and Aaliyah struggled to keep control of the narrative around her
02:22own life. In the same way she declined to admit that her involvement with R. Kelly had
02:25come to the point of marriage, she also denied having relationships with other famous figures
02:29from the music industry.
02:30But you're not gonna get the whole picture of Aaliyah for a while.
02:34One such figure was Jay-Z. According to his business partner, Damon Dash, who Aaliyah
02:39was in a relationship with at the time of her death, the rapper attempted to romance
02:42the young star with gifts and flowers. Word spread that the two were in a relationship,
02:46though Aaliyah herself denied the rumors.
02:48However, Dash has more recently claimed that he and Jay-Z were both attempting to begin
02:51a relationship at the same time, and that she ultimately chose him. Publicly, Aaliyah
02:56only referred to Dash as a good friend, though this may simply have been a tactic to protect
03:00her privacy. At the time of her plane crash, she and Dash were reportedly planning to marry.
03:05If Aaliyah was around today, a certain portion of the internet would be teasing her for being
03:09a Nepo baby, a star whose big break was the result of nepotism. In Aaliyah's case, her
03:13path was set thanks to her aunt, R&B icon Gladys Knight.
03:17During the young star's childhood, Knight was still a sought-after performer and a major
03:20draw for audiences. Knight's former husband, Barry Hankerson, was a renowned figure in
03:24the world of music with his own record label. He also had experience managing top R&B stars.
03:29He became Aaliyah's manager and was instrumental in organizing her live debut alongside Knight
03:33for her Las Vegas residency in 1990. Aaliyah was then 11 and already on her way to stardom
03:38thanks to her connections. He also helped her sign her first record contract with Jive
03:42Records at the age of just 12.
03:44In 1995, Aaliyah's father took over management of her music career.
03:48Shocking celebrity deaths have a tendency to attract conspiracy theories, and Aaliyah's
03:53was no exception. In the 2020 documentary Surviving R. Kelly Part II The Reckoning,
03:57Dash described her as the sacrificial lamb in the R. Kelly case. And in 2024, her tragic
04:02passing came back under the spotlight amid accusations against her former associate,
04:06Sean Diddy Combs, who is accused of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage
04:11in prostitution.
04:12Amid growing awareness of the exploitation of girls and young women in the music industry,
04:16some are wondering whether the crash that took Aaliyah's life was truly an accident.
04:19Despite no definitive evidence, some online sleuths believe that Aaliyah's death may have
04:23been organized to protect famous faces in the music industry who may have been involved
04:27in Diddy's alleged crimes.
04:29More intriguing, however, is a detail concerning the moments before the fateful plane crash.
04:33According to the Daily Beast, Aaliyah had a known fear of flying. Some questioned why
04:36she would have boarded the private plane, which was small and overloaded with luggage,
04:40a contributing factor in the crash. An eyewitness whose family reportedly owned the taxi company
04:45Aaliyah and her team used to get to the airport, claimed to have seen her being carried onto
04:48the plane unconscious.