R Kelly: I Was in Love with Aaliyah

In an interview with GQ magazine, R. Kelly respectfully opens up about his feelings towards late-singer, Aaliyah. While refraining from opening up about his marriage to-then a 15-year-old- Aaliyah out of respect for her sickly mother and deceased father, he described their relationship stemming from a deep friendship. "Uh, I would describe it as best friends. Deep friends. As far as we both loved music and wanted to be successful. She's a Capricorn, I'm a Capricorn, my momma a Capricorn, her daddy's a Capricorn, you know. It was just so much in common with each other," he said. The 49-year-old confirmed that he was in love with one of R&B's iconic figures, and the feeling was mutual, "Well, there's a lot of ways to be in love with a person. I was in love with my grandfather, you know. But yeah, I would say I was in love with Aaliyah just like I was in love with anybody else. But in a different, friend type of way."

When it came time for the R&B crooner to open up about his scandalous marriage to Aaliyah, which was revealed in a Vibe magazine issue in 1995, he explained that her family asked him to not talk about their nuptials, "Well, because of Aaliyah's passing, as I've always said, out of respect for her mother who's sick and her father who's passed, I will never have that conversation with anyone. Out of respect for Aaliyah, and her mother and father who has asked me not to personally. But I can tell you I loved her, I can tell you she loved me, we was very close. We were, you know, best best best best friends."

Source: GQ