Mathew Knowles says R. Kelly rumors “certainly” influenced his decision to keep Destiny’s Child from working with him

Pam Francis/Getty ImagesMathew Knowles— Destiny’s Child’s former manager, and the father of Beyoncé and Solange — has decided to addresses the relationship between the girl group and R. Kelly.

In an interview with Metro UK, Knowles admits that the rumors surrounding R. Kelly made him reluctant to have Destiny’s Child work with the singer, even though there was pressure to do so.

“R. Kelly was managed by Sony, and at that time, they would almost force you to record with [their] artists,” Knowles explained. “And R. Kelly wasn’t cheap – it was $75,000, plus travel costs, so we’re talking $100,000 for a song.”

Knowles says when Kelly did pen a song for the girls, he turned it down — not because of the rumors, but because he didn’t like it.

As Knowles explains, “I personally rejected the song, because I didn’t think it was a good song. Not just because of [his] reputation – this was around 1998, we had just begun to hear some of those things.”

But from that point on, Knowles says, the rumors “certainly” played into his decision not to have the group record Kelly’s songs, especially because he and his then-wife Tina were so protective of them.

“The girls were 15, 16,” Knowles said. “When they went to the bathroom, Tina would go with them. They did not leave our eyes.”

Metro UK cites a source that claims Matthew and Tina rejected all Kelly’s material “because they didn’t want him anywhere near the band.”

Still, the group did end up cutting one of Kelly’s songs, “Stimulate Me,” for the soundtrack of the 1999 Eddie Murphy film Life. But, the source claims, Kelly wasn’t in the studio when the track was recorded, and Matthew didn’t want it on any of the group’s official albums.