R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years. Listed below are all of the sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him, in a single timeline.

R. Kelly has been sentenced to twenty years in jail on little one pornography prices. Kelly, one of the vital celebrated R&B singers of the ’90s, was convicted in September 2022 on three counts of kid pornography and three counts of engaging a minor in Illinois. He’s already serving a 30-year jail sentence in New York after being convicted on intercourse trafficking prices in 2021. The 2 convictions are the fruits of a protracted, sluggish construct of accusations that return a long time.

Kelly has been accused of sexual relationships with minors going again to 1994, when he married 15-year-old pop star Aaliyah. (The wedding was annulled.) Within the 25 years since then, he has been sued a number of occasions for inappropriate sexual contact with a minor (he settled out of courtroom each time), and he was finally charged with creating little one pornography. (A jury discovered him not responsible on the grounds that they may not conclusively establish the opposite determine in his notorious intercourse tape as a toddler.)

In 2017, he was accused of making an abusive “intercourse cult” of very younger girls, whom he allegedly isolates, brainwashes, and abuses bodily and emotionally. Because the story broke, a number of girls have added their very own testimonies of abuse at R. Kelly’s arms, together with his ex-wife. (By means of a lawyer, Kelly has denied all accusations, saying he would “work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his title.”)

But regardless of a long time of lawsuits and allegations, Kelly’s profession marched steadily on. In 2017, he completed an area tour with just a few cancellations. In 2018, he toured with singer Charlie Wilson (there have been some protests). His music appeared in Pitch Excellent 3.

That stasis started to alter in 2018. A lot of the claims in opposition to Kelly have been reiterated in a 2018 BBC Three documentary, R Kelly: Intercourse, Women & Videotapes, after which once more in Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly. From 2017 to 2019, at the very least 5 members of Kelly’s internal circle left him. His assistant, his accountant, his lawyer, and his publicist have all stated that they now not work for him, though none of them have gone into element about their departures and all have been supportive and complimentary towards Kelly of their statements. His longtime musical accompanist, DJ Phantom, was much less circumspect about his resolution to depart Kelly in 2017: “I didn’t know then what I do know now,” he stated. “He’s a shitbag.”

In 2018, the Ladies of Colour committee inside Time’s Up threw its weight behind the #MuteRKelly marketing campaign, calling for anybody presently benefiting from Kelly and his music to drop him, together with Spotify, Ticketmaster, and Kelly’s report label, RCA. In 2019, RCA quietly dropped Kelly.

In January 2019, Lifetime premiered the documentary sequence Surviving R. Kelly, an outline of Kelly’s life and profession — and of the a long time’ value of accounts that accuse him of getting sexually abused younger girls and youngsters. (Kelly’s lawyer stated the sequence is filled with lies and threatened to sue.)

One month later, the fees started to return. All through 2019, Kelly was formally charged with dozens of counts of sexual abuse and assault by courts in a number of completely different states.

Nonetheless, as Kelly’s authorized jeopardy deepened, his music profession continued. Based on the Blast, Kelly’s music noticed a 16 p.c surge in Spotify streams after Surviving R. Kelly premiered.

There was a persistent vagueness to the best way we talked about R. Kelly that made it potential to overlook precisely what he was accused of, how usually he was accused, and the way a lot proof there may be in opposition to him. And almost definitely, that’s as a result of his accusers are overwhelmingly younger Black girls and therefore apparently simple for America to disregard.

“The saddest truth I’ve realized is: No one issues much less to our society than younger black girls,” says Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who broke the R. Kelly story. “No one.”

To attempt to fight that vagueness and the erasure that it makes potential, here’s a timeline of all of the accusations of sexual misconduct in opposition to R. Kelly.

A lot of the chronology under is drawn from DeRogatis’s invaluable reporting on the R. Kelly accusations, together with his personal immensely thorough timeline. DeRogatis’s timeline covers your entire span of Kelly’s life, together with his main profession milestones and unrelated authorized points, however we’ve narrowed the main focus of this timeline to particularly cowl the sexual misconduct accusations in opposition to Kelly.

Over a 25-year span, a constant sample emerges. Again and again, Kelly is accused of the identical conduct: of concentrating on women and really younger girls, isolating them, and controlling and abusing them. And after the mud from the accusation settles, Kelly has gone on dwelling his life with only a few adjustments. Till now.

Right here, from Aaliyah to the alleged intercourse cult to the fees of aggravated legal sexual abuse, are all of the R. Kelly accusations.

Javier Zarracina/Vox

August 30, 1994: 27-year-old R. Kelly marries 15-year-old Aaliyah

The ’90s music sensation Aaliyah was Kelly’s protégé. They met when she was 12 years outdated, and Kelly wrote and produced her first album in 1993. It was titled Age Ain’t Nothing but a Quantity. In 1995, Vibe journal revealed a duplicate of their marriage license, with 15-year-old Aaliyah falsely itemizing her age as 18.

“Relations say Aaliyah thought it was all an elaborate ‘sport,’ and she or he simply went together with it,” the Chicago Solar-Occasions later reported, including that the wedding license was reportedly obtained by Kelly’s assistant, utilizing a faux ID. “Inside hours, she realized what had occurred, and she or he went to her household and sought their assist.”

The wedding was annulled in 1994, simply months after the ceremony. Within the settlement, in line with paperwork obtained by the Solar-Occasions, Aaliyah guarantees to not pursue additional authorized motion due to “emotional misery attributable to any facet of her enterprise or private relationship with Robert” or for “bodily harm or emotional ache and struggling arising from any assault or battery perpetrated by Robert in opposition to her individual.”

1995: Kelly reportedly begins a relationship with underage Lizzette Martinez

In an interview with BuzzFeed revealed in Could 2018, Martinez says she met Kelly on the mall when she was 17, and that he initiated a sexual relationship along with her whereas conscious of her age. She additionally says that he was bodily abusive to her and that he pressured her to carry out some sexual acts in opposition to her will. “It was very managed: what I wore, how I spoke, who my pals have been, who I might carry round,” she says. Kelly has not but commented on Martinez’s story.

December 24, 1996: the primary of the recognized lawsuits accusing Kelly of intercourse with underage women is filed

Tiffany Hawkins filed go well with in opposition to Kelly and his report, publishing, and administration corporations on Christmas Eve 1996. The go well with alleged that he initiated a sexual relationship along with her when he was 24 and she or he was 15, and that he pushed her to take part in group intercourse with him and different underage women. Kelly allegedly met Hawkins at his outdated Chicago highschool, Kenwood Academy, when he visited the college to reminisce about having gotten his begin there and to encourage present college students to comply with their goals.

Hawkins sought $10 million in damages, however Kelly countersued, claiming that Hawkins was making an attempt to blackmail him with a false paternity declare. (There is no such thing as a paternity declare in Hawkins’s lawsuit.) Hawkins settled for $250,000, and her go well with went largely unnoticed till 2000, when DeRogatis started to research the R. Kelly case for the Chicago Solar-Occasions.

December 21, 2000: the Chicago Solar-Occasions publishes the primary newspaper article investigating Kelly’s alleged intercourse crimes

In a prolonged and totally reported story, the Chicago Solar-Occasions outlined the details of the Tiffany Hawkins lawsuit and Kelly’s marriage to Aaliyah. “Chicago police twice have investigated allegations that Kelly was having intercourse with an underage feminine however dropped the investigations as a result of the woman wouldn’t cooperate,” the story famous. Nobody from Kelly’s camp offered remark for the article.

January 2001: the primary R. Kelly intercourse tape emerges

An nameless supply despatched a videotape of what seemed to be Kelly having intercourse with a really younger girl to Jim DeRogatis on the Solar-Occasions. DeRogatis handed the tape over to the Chicago police, however the police, unable to establish the girl within the tape, didn’t cost Kelly. Bootleg copies of the tape circulated all through Chicago. So far as we will inform, Kelly has not publicly commented on this tape.

August 2001: the second R. Kelly lawsuit is filed

Tracy Sampson, a former intern at Epic Information, filed a lawsuit in opposition to Kelly claiming that he initiated a sexual relationship along with her when she was 17. DeRogatis quotes at size from her lawsuit:

I used to be lied to by him. … I used to be coerced into receiving oral intercourse from a lady I didn’t wish to have intercourse with. I used to be usually handled as his private intercourse object and solid apart. He would inform me to return to his studio and have intercourse with him, then inform me to go. He usually tried to manage each facet of my life together with who I might see and the place I might go.

The go well with was settled out of courtroom. The dimensions of the settlement is unknown. Kelly denied all wrongdoing.

February 8, 2002: the second R. Kelly tape emerges

An nameless supply despatched one other videotape to the Chicago Police Division, this one exhibiting Kelly partaking in intercourse acts with and urinating on what seems to be a younger woman whereas instructing her to name him “Daddy.” A witness recognized the woman and stated she would have been 14 on the time the videotape was made.

Kelly, who was scheduled to carry out on the Winter Olympics the identical month that the tape emerged, denied in a radio interview that the tape confirmed him having intercourse with a minor. “It’s crap, and that’s how we’re going to deal with it,” he stated. “The rationale these items are taking place I actually do consider is due to the truth that I didn’t fall again so far as blackmail was involved. I didn’t give them any cash.”

Bootleg copies of the tape circulated throughout the nation, and police finally indicted Kelly on 21 counts of kid pornography.

April 29, 2002: Kelly is sued by a 3rd girl …

Patrice Jones stated in her lawsuit that Kelly had intercourse along with her when she was 16 years outdated, and that when she grew to become pregnant, he coerced her into having an abortion. Kelly settled the lawsuit out of courtroom for an unknown sum. His lawyer described the go well with as “a group of half-truths, distortions and outright lies.”

Could 4, 2002: … and a fourth

Thirty-three-year-old Montina Woods stated that Kelly taped their sexual encounter with out her data after which distributed the tapes. Kelly, as soon as once more, settled out of courtroom for an unknown sum. A spokesperson from his camp described the go well with as “ridiculous” and “nonsensical.”

2005: Kelly’s second spouse, Andrea Lee, recordsdata a restraining order in opposition to him alleging abuse

Kelly married dancer Drea Kelly, née Andrea Lee, in 1996. In 2005, she petitioned for and acquired an emergency restraining order in opposition to him, citing bodily abuse, harassment, stalking, and interfering along with her private liberty.

In her petition, Drea wrote that when she requested for a divorce, Kelly pinned her down and hit her repeatedly, yelling, “Don’t you allow me! Why are you leaving me?” She added that he repeatedly “snapped” at her when she was close to a person, together with the time a person confirmed up within the background of an image she took along with her youngsters.

“My spouse and I had a heated argument, and we at the moment are within the strategy of working it out,” Kelly stated in a public assertion. “We hope that the press and public will give us the time and privateness we have to resolve this very private scenario.”

As soon as the emergency order expired, Drea requested for it to be dismissed, and she or he refused to touch upon the incident within the press, referring to it solely as “outdated information.”

October 4, 2006: Kelly is sued by his mentor and affiliate

Longtime Kelly affiliate Henry “Love” Vaughn stated in a lawsuit that Kelly attacked him at a celebration at his home, and backed out of paying Vaughn for his work on a tune as effectively. In an interview with the Solar-Occasions, Vaughn claimed Kelly attacked him after he remarked that Kelly’s 7-year-old daughter was dancing “grown-up model,” saying, “She was all dressed up with tight denims and make-up on, a seven-year-old woman, dancing on prime of the pool desk. It was ridiculous. She instructed my woman, ‘I’m having a present subsequent week; once you come, carry $100.’”

Kelly’s lawyer as soon as once more described the lawsuit as “a pathetic assortment of half-truths, distortions and outright lies.”

Could 2008: the trial of R. Kelly

Greater than 5 years after the information of the alleged little one intercourse tape broke, Kelly confronted trial on 14 counts of kid pornography. (Within the years since he was indicted, Kelly’s legal professionals had efficiently knocked down seven of the unique prices.) The trial lasted for simply over a month, and neither Kelly nor the woman on the tape testified. Though 15 witnesses for the prosecution took the stand to establish the woman in query, the jury concluded that they may not be constructive of the woman’s id and thus couldn’t make sure that she was underage. After at some point of deliberations, the jury discovered Kelly not responsible. Kelly broke down in tears within the courtroom.

After the trial, Kelly spent practically 10 years tending to his profession, headlining musical festivals and staying away from scandal. After which …

July 2017: information of the alleged intercourse cult breaks

In July 2017, BuzzFeed Information reported that R. Kelly was allegedly holding a number of younger girls in compounds on his properties throughout the nation, controlling their each transfer. Based on BuzzFeed’s sources, the ladies have been required to name Kelly “Daddy”; ask his permission earlier than going wherever, together with the toilet; put on jogging fits in order that different males couldn’t see their our bodies; and switch and face the wall when different males entered the room. BuzzFeed additional reported that Kelly allegedly coerced the ladies into group intercourse, videotaped them, and beat them after they disobeyed him.

However the girls presently dwelling with Kelly have repeatedly stated that they’re glad and that they’re with him of their very own free will. And since they’re all 18 or older, police haven’t intervened.

By means of a lawyer, Kelly issued a press release denying the BuzzFeed report. “Mr. Robert Kelly is each alarmed and disturbed on the latest revelations attributed to him,” the assertion reads. “Mr. Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and can work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his title.”

August 2017: one among R. Kelly’s accusers breaks her nondisclosure settlement to talk out

Jerhonda Tempo says she started a relationship with Kelly in 2009, when she was 16, and that the small print of their relationship match the small print reported about Kelly’s alleged “intercourse cult”: At first Kelly courted her, she stated, after which he remoted her, after which he started to abuse her. After their relationship ended, she sued Kelly for damages, and says he settled along with her out of courtroom in alternate for her signing an NDA. Tempo stated she determined to interrupt the phrases of her settlement final summer time with a purpose to assist the ladies nonetheless with Kelly. “If I can converse out and I will help them get out of that scenario, that’s what I’ll do,” she stated.

A consultant for Kelly denied the accusations, saying, “The allegations in opposition to Mr. Kelly are false, and are being made by people recognized to be dishonest. It’s clear these persevering with tales are the results of the trouble of these with private agendas who’re working in live performance to intervene with and harm his profession. Mr. Kelly once more denies any and all wrongdoing and is taking acceptable authorized motion to guard himself from ongoing defamation.”

October 2017: one other Kelly accuser backs up the intercourse cult story

Kitti Jones says her relationship with Kelly additionally mirrors the accounts of the intercourse cult story. Kelly obtained her to stop her job and transfer in with him, Jones stated final October, after which he started to manage her, after which he started to abuse her. Kelly denied all of the accusations.

April 9, 2018: an unnamed girl recordsdata a legal criticism in opposition to Kelly

An unnamed girl says she spent eight months in a relationship with Kelly when she was 19, and that he was grooming her to affix his intercourse cult, the Huffington Put up studies. Based on the girl’s lawyer, at one level Kelly instructed her that “she must signal a contract and supply collateral details about herself and her household for Kelly’s safety.”

The lady says Kelly deliberately contaminated her with an STD over the course of their relationship. She’s filed a legal criticism in opposition to him, citing prices of “illegal restraint, furnishing alcohol and unlawful medication to a minor, and aggravated assault (by way of the referenced intentional STD an infection).” Her lawyer says she is making ready a federal civil lawsuit in opposition to Kelly. Kelly has denied the accusations.

November 20, 2018: Kelly’s ex-wife Drea Kelly accuses R. Kelly of home violence

Kelly and his second spouse Drea Kelly (née Andrea Lee) divorced in 2009, however rumors have lengthy flourished that darkish secrets and techniques lurked of their marriage.

In 2003, Drea’s mom Gerri Cruz instructed journalists that she feared that R. Kelly was brainwashing her daughter. “The final time I talked to her was over two years in the past on the telephone,” Cruz stated. “She was crying hysterically and violently.”

Cruz stated she requested the police to take a look at Kelly’s home to make it possible for Drea was all proper, however nothing got here of it.

“I don’t know if my little one is underneath the affect. I don’t know if she is being managed. I don’t know if individuals are watching her. I don’t know if she is being brainwashed,” Cruz stated.

Drea denied that she was being evaded her household. “We reside proper right here in Chicago. How might you not know the place I’m? It’s not as if I’m abroad,” she stated in an interview with Essence in 2009.

Earlier studies within the Chicago Solar-Occasions stated that Kelly’s associates referred to Drea as “Puppydog,” and that she was “required” to knock earlier than getting into a room within the couple’s shared home.

In November 2018, Drea spoke out publicly for the primary time concerning the abuse she says she has skilled at Kelly’s arms. She instructed ABC Information that Kelly emotionally, bodily, and sexually abused her, and that after they have been married, she thought he would possibly kill her. She says she determined to return ahead after tales of Kelly’s alleged intercourse cult started to emerge.

“All these allegations begin comin’ out once more and I’m like, ‘God, OK. I don’t suppose I can take this one,’” she stated.

Kelly’s representatives declined to touch upon Drea’s statements.

January 3, 2019: Surviving R. Kelly premieres on Lifetime

Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly consisted of three two-hour installments: The primary centered on Kelly’s childhood and early music profession — and the sexual abuse he suffered. The second centered on his 2008 legal trial. The third, on the 2017 “intercourse cult” story. Whereas the sequence largely reiterated info that was already on the report, it did embody accounts from a number of members of Kelly’s internal circle who have been talking out in public for the primary time, and its arrival was marked by outrage.

In December 2018, a non-public screening of the docuseries was evacuated after which canceled following a gun risk. “The very first thing that got here to my thoughts — and I can’t converse for anybody else — was that [R. Kelly] had this shut down,” Drea Kelly instructed Rolling Stone after the evacuation. “I consider it was someone linked to him.” And on the day of the premiere, TMZ revealed a letter from Kelly’s lawyer threatening to sue Lifetime over the sequence.

February 14, 2019: a 3rd intercourse tape emerges

Each the New Yorker and CNN reported that regulation enforcement officers in Illinois had acquired a duplicate of a tape that appeared to point out Kelly partaking in intercourse acts with a 14-year-old woman.

February 22, 2019: Kelly is charged with 10 counts of aggravated legal sexual abuse

Prosecutors in Cook dinner County, Illinois, filed 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse in opposition to Kelly. He was arraigned in March 2019.

Could 30, 2019: Kelly is charged with 11 extra counts, together with aggravated legal sexual assault

Three months after submitting 10 prices in opposition to Kelly, Cook dinner County filed a further 11 prices in opposition to him. The brand new prices included aggravated legal sexual assault, which is taken into account extra severe than the sexual abuse with which Kelly was beforehand charged, and which may be punished by as much as 30 years in jail.

July 11–12, 2019: Kelly faces 18 new counts, together with kidnapping and little one pornography

Cook dinner County prosecutors filed a further 13 prices in opposition to Kelly on July 11, together with prices of kid pornography. The next day, he acquired 5 further federal intercourse crime prices, together with prices of kidnapping and compelled labor in New York.

September 27, 2021: Kelly is convicted of 9 counts in Brooklyn

After six weeks of trial, Kelly was convicted of every cost he confronted in New York, a rap sheet of racketeering and a number of predicate acts, together with unlawful intercourse with minors, sexual exploitation of minors, bribery, coercion, and compelled labor. “Right this moment’s responsible verdict eternally manufacturers R. Kelly as a predator, who used his fame and fortune to prey on the younger, the weak, and the unvoiced for his personal sexual gratification,” performing US Legal professional Jacquelyn Kasulis stated in a press release.

June 29, 2022: Kelly is sentenced to 30 years in jail

Within the first of the brand new Kelly instances to undergo the courts, Kelly acquired a 30-year sentence.

September 14, 2022: Kelly is convicted of six counts in Chicago

Kelly was discovered responsible of three counts of kid pornography and three counts of kid enticement, however cleared of the opposite eight prices he confronted.

February 23, 2023: Kelly is sentenced to twenty years in jail

A choose has dominated that each one however one yr of Kelly’s Chicago sentence may be served concurrently his New York sentence, bringing his complete jail time to 31 years.

The sheer quantity of accusations Kelly has fielded since 1994 is astonishing, and maybe it gives its personal reply as to why he was capable of reside his life with few penalties. In a way, his followers have been inoculated. They’ve been listening to accusations in opposition to Kelly for 25 years, they usually’ve been listening to Kelly preserve his innocence for simply as lengthy. Within the twenty first century, ignoring the persistent allegations in opposition to him is simply a part of being an R. Kelly fan.

Replace, February 23, 2023, 2:30 pm ET: This text was initially revealed in April 2018. Vox has continued to replace it as extra info got here to gentle.