R. Kelly

He married Andrea, his former backup dancer, in 1996. The couple has three children. They divorced in 2009 after almost 13 years of marriage.

Videos of Kelly engaging in sexual acts with a minor girl surfaced in 2002 and he was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography.

R. Kelly was born on January 8, 1967 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. He has three siblings and was raised by a single mother, Joanne. The family lived in poverty and struggled to make ends meet.

He had a very difficult childhood. He was often sexually abused by a woman and was shot in the shoulder while riding his bike home, when he was 11.

He started singing in the church choir when he was eight.

He studied at the Kenwood Academy in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was an athletic young boy and played basketball for his high school team. However, his music teacher Lena McLin who had recognized his musical talent advised him to leave the sport and focus on music.

As a youngster he formed a group, MGM (Musically Gifted Men), with his friends Marc McWilliams, Vincent Walker, and Shawn Brooks. In 1990, MGM recorded and released their first single, ‘Why You Wanna Play Me’ and disbanded shortly after.

In 1992, Kelly released his debut album ‘Born into the 90’s’, with the group Public Announcement as his back-up. The album produced several hit songs and was eventually certified platinum.

His self-titled album, ‘R. Kelly’ was out in 1995. Featuring introspective lyrics and foot-tapping music, this album became a huge hit and spawned three No. 1 singles: ‘You Remind Me of Something’, ‘Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)’ and ‘I Can't Sleep Baby (If I)’.

In 1998 he released ‘R’, the album that would become the most commercially successful one of his career so far. It also received highly positive critical reviews and earned many awards and nominations.

His album, ‘Chocolate Factory’ (2003) debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. It became a huge international success and over three million copies of the album were worldwide. It also received rave reviews from publications such as ‘The New York Times’ and ‘USA Today’.

His third studio album, ‘R’ went on to become his biggest selling album to date, selling eight million copies in the US. It peaked at No. 1 on the R&B albums chart and spawned the No. 1 U.S. pop hit, ‘I’m Your Angel’ and the No. 1 R&B hit, ‘I Believe I Can Fly’.