Hip-hop producer Timbaland initially fell for his wife Monique because she bore striking similarities to his late protegee Aaliyah.
The beatmaker, real name Timothy Mosley, has opened up about his true feelings for the Try Again singer in a new E! True Hollywood Story special, in which he admits he was "in love" with the young star.
He says, "When I first met Aaliyah... I was in love with her. I said, 'She (is) just a baby, I'm old'. I said to myself, 'I'm just gonna be her brother'. Oh man, I was fightin', I was fightin' a lot - a big war. But I loved Aaliyah."
He was left devastated when the R&B beauty was killed in a 2001 plane crash and the emotions came flooding back to him when he first laid eyes on music executive Monique Idlett while attending an industry event in Jamaica.
He recalls, "When I first saw her, I said, 'That's the girl I'm gonna marry', because she reminded me of Aaliyah... I thought I saw a ghost. I said, 'Oh my goodness, do you see what I'm seeing? I ain't crazy!'"
The couple wed in 2008 and are parents to three-year-old daughter Reign.