Kathy Iandoli, renowned music journalist and author of “Baby Girl: Better Known As Aaliyah,” took to Twitter on Tuesday night and slammed clickbait headlines stating her new book claims the late singer was drugged and carried onto the plane that crashed and took her life.
She says the book that was intended to bring closure to Aaliyah’s death is now being taken out of context.
In a series of tweets, Kathy said:
Speaking with Aaliyah fans all week, and I want to be very clear: the headlines suggesting my book says she was drugged and carried on a plane are NOT what is written in my book. The news outlets have been twisting this story for days, and it’s getting to be too much.
Considering this is supposed to be the month to celebrate Aaliyah, taking a story out of context from my book was not the way to begin it. Further, these rumors are now messing with Aaliyah’s name, calling her a “junkie” which also wasn’t true.
Hoping the Aaliyah fans understand that the media took this out of context. And to these gossip sites, please find other clickbait. We have a legend to celebrate. Thanks.
See her original tweets below.
Things went left on Monday (August 2) when the Daily Beast published an interview with Kathy Iandoli, where she allegedly said:
I remember when Aaliyah passed away, I was really upset. The story kept saying that she was adamant about getting on the plane. I was almost upset with her. Why did you want to get on that plane so badly? I remember wrestling with this, being like, ‘Well, she wanted to get back to [then-boyfriend] Damon Dash, she wanted to be with her team, and who wouldn’t want their stuff with them?’
You may recall the story was Aaliyah was allegedly adamant about boarding the plane and bringing all of her belongings with her.
It was later determined the small twin-engine plane exceeded its maximum weight limit by several hundred pounds. To add insult to injury, the pilot had cocaine and alcohol in his system.
According to the Daily Beast, Kathy Iandoli finally got the truth from Kingsley Russell, an Abaco Islands man, who claims he saw Aaliyah, who was in a deep sleep, being carried onto the flight before it crashed.
Kingsley, who was 13 and working as the crew’s baggage handler at the time of the crash, claims he saw a member of Aaliyah’s team give her a pill that put her into a deep sleep. Then, she was placed on the plane while asleep.
Kathy allegedly told the Daily Beast:
In learning that she did not want to get on the plane, for someone like myself and so many other people, I think that’s closure for us.
It’s an unfortunate closure… but I needed to hear she didn’t want to get on that plane; I needed to know that.
The person who I thought had the most common sense in the world had common sense to not get on the plane.
The fact that she was so adamant, staying in the cab, refusing—these are things we never knew.
Kathy was unsure if she should the pill detail in her book, but ultimately decided it was an important detail that “debunked something that we had been believing for all this time.”
She added:
The only thing I’ve taken with me is that after 20 years, I can finally say that Aaliyah didn’t want to get on the plane.
That makes me feel a little better, but not much. This didn’t have to happen. She should still be here, and I think that’s the saddest part about it.
She deserved better.
Kathy Iandoli took to Instagram to address the Daily Beast article saying:
It’s all over the internet now, so I just want to say this: whatever this was that went down (and I will speak more on that after my book publishes in two weeks), the one thing I stand by is the last line of this Daily Beast article: Aaliyah deserved better.
See her original post below.
“Baby Girl: Better Known As Aaliyah” arrives on August 17.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the tragic August 25, 2001 plane crash that took the life of Aaliyah and eight others.
May they all rest in peace.
Your thoughts?
Source: Daily Beast
