Aaliyah’s Mother Blasts Backup Singer’s Claims Daughter Had Sex With R. Kelly When Underage: ‘Lies And Fabrications’

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A former backup singer for R. Kelly is making a shocking allegation about the controversial R&B singer, claiming in a new television documentary that Kelly, then 27, was in a sexual relationship with singer Aaliyah when she was just 15.

Speaking in the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly”, former backup singer Jovante Cunningham is one of several women to share stories alleging the “Trapped in the Closet” singer exhibited a decades-long pattern of using his celebrity status physically and sexually abuse young women, some of them under the age of consent.

As People reports, the six-part documentary’s first episode airs on Jan. 3, and features Cunningham’s claims that she had firsthand knowledge that Kelly was having sex with Aaliyah Haughton, his one-time musical protege.

RELATED: Gun Threat Forces Evacuation Of ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Premiere

“Aaliyah [was] very tom-boyish, glasses, braces, no swag,” Cunningham recalls of meeting 12-year-old Aaliyah, who was the niece of Kelly’s then-manager.

“She truly was a beautiful young lady. We used to sneak Aaliyah out of the hotel room and take her all over the place,” says Cunningham. “Those were the good old days, but those are the things that also make you cry.”

Controversy engulfed Aaliyah’s 1994 Kelly-penned hit “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number”, due to persistent rumours that the then-15-year-old was having sex with Kelly, along with speculation the two had been secretly married.

RELATED: First Look At Lifetime’s ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Docuseries

In “Surviving R. Kelly”, Cunningham breaks down into tears when she remembers first learning of the alleged affair. 

“We were out on the road with Aaliyah. On a tour bus, there really aren’t many confined spaces. When you get on the bus there are bunks and so these bunks have little curtains you can pull at night if you don’t want anybody to see you sleeping,” she explains.

“So it just so happened we were all laying in our bunks and the curtains are open, everybody’s communicating, laughing,” Cunningham continues. “When the [room] door flew open on the bus. Robert was having sex with Aaliyah.”

RELATED: R. Kelly Addresses Sexual Abuse Allegations In New 19-Minute Song

Asked to describe what she witnessed, Cunningham responds: “Things that an adult should not be doing with a child,” adding: “I can’t stress to you how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago.”

Contacted by People to address Cunningham’s claims about Aaliyah, who died in a 2001 plane crash, a rep for Kelly responded, “No comment.”

However, Alliyah’s mother, Diane Haughton, disputes Cunningham’s claims, flat out calling her a “liar” in a statement released on social media.

“The woman and so-called back up singer that describes seeing, meeting or ever breathing the same air as my daughter, Aaliyah, is lying and is a liar. My husband and I were always on tour with her and at interviews and every place she went throughout her entire career. Whoever this woman is, I have never seen her before anywhere on planet earth, until now,” Haughton says in a statement.

“These lies and fabrications cannot be tolerated and allowed to be spewed from the forked tongues of saboteurs of Aaliyah’s legacy,” she continues. “My daughter only wanted to realize her dream of sharing her talent with the world, and give her all performing on stage and in front of the camera for the fans she adored so much. She realized that dream, thanks to those true fans who still love and support her legacy unconditionally to this day,” she writes, concluding: “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. Once again, this will not be tolerated.”

“Surviving R. Kelly” debuts on Thursday, Jan. 3 on Lifetime Canada.