Aaliyah’s mother slammed the Surviving R Kelly documentary for lying about her daughter. In 2019, People Magazine reported that Diane Haughton, mother of the beloved singer, released a statement on social media following allegations made in the series.
In January of that year, the first episode of the documentary exposing the evil acts of R Kelly aired on Lifetime. The episode saw former backup dancer Jovante Cunningham speak tearfully about her eyewitness account of R Kelly’s abuse of Aaliyah.
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She claimed in an emotional interview that she had seen R Kelly with Aaliya when she was still underage. In fact, she said that many others in R Kelly’s entourage also saw the incident in question.
In Jovante’s words, “We were all laying in our bunks and the curtains are open, everybody’s communicating, laughing, when the door flew open on the bus.” She said she saw R Kelly and Aaliya doing “things that an adult should not be doing with a child.”
Aaliyah’s Mom Spoke Out on Social Media
Following the airing of the horrifying episode, Diane took to Twitter on the official Aaliyah account, to deny Jovante’s allegations. She wrote that she and her husband were both “always on tour” with their daughter. She also said they were present for interviews and every place she went “throughout her entire career.”
Diane then went on to say of Jovante, “Whoever this woman is, I have never seen her before anywhere on planet Earth, until now.” She described her account as “lies and fabrication.”
Her lengthy post then attacked the docuseries for bringing her late daughter’s name into the mess R Kelly had created. Diane wrote, “Shame on all those involved in this project who thought it kosher to drag Aaliyah’s name into a situation that has nothing to do with her today.”
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Aaliyah passed away in 2001 when she was just 22 years old. The relationship between Aaliyah and R Kelly was one of the first high-profile stories to come out about the Ignition singer.
In 1994, at the age of 27, R Kelly married the 15-year-old singer. They got married in a secret ceremony in Chicago. It was later discovered that Aaliyah had lied about her age on their marriage certificate.
Many years later, R Kelly’s former tour manager testified about the circumstances of the marriage. He explained that someone brided a government worker for a fake ID to allow Aaliyah to marry R Kelly. The marriage was then annulled in 1995.
Despite this, Diane strongly denied that anything illegal happened to Aaliyah on tour. She was allegedly under the total supervision of her parents during that time.
After Diane posted her statement, however, Jovante did not retreat from her statements. She told People in a statement that it was “unfortunate” that Diane was still trying to protect R Kelly.
Jovante went on to say that she “loved Aaliyah.” She hopes that the documentary will show how affected Jovante was by what she saw. It’s unclear how much Diane still believes in her 2019 statement in the wake of everything we now know about R Kelly’s true nature.
