The Chicago Sun-Times played a pivotal role in the investigations and the subsequent coverage of criminal charges against R&B star R. Kelly. The paper published its first interview with the rising star on May 15, 1994. “I love coming home,” he told reporter Dave Hoekstra. “I hang around the same places; I hang around the same ‘hood.”
News of Kelly’s marriage to his 15-year-old protege Aaliyah Haughton first surfaced in “Kup’s Column” later that year on Sept. 22. “[Kelly] maintains she’s 18, but her Detroit high school friends insist she’s an underage 15,” Kup wrote. Haughton’s parents had the marriage annulled soon after the reports began circulating.
