Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of child sexual abuse that may be distressing to some readers.
R. Kelly’s daughter, Buku Abi, whose real name is Joann Kelly, is opening up about the alleged sexual abuse she suffered from her father as a child.
In the two-episode documentary R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, which aired on the TVEI Streaming Network on Friday (Oct. 11), Abi revealed that the abuse started when she was around 8 or 9 years old. "I just remember waking up to him touching me," the “Dear Daisy” artist recalled, mentioning that she “pretended to be asleep” due to her not knowing how to respond.
Abi eventually shared what happened with her mother and R. Kelly’s now ex-wife, Andrea, when she was 10. The two filed an anonymous police complaint, though it was too late to prosecute the R&B singer.
“I really feel like that one millisecond completely just changed my whole life and changed who I was as a person and changed the sparkle I had and the light I used to carry,” she shared, per People. “After I told my mom, I didn’t go over there anymore; my brother [Robert] and sister [Jaah], we didn’t go over there anymore. And even up until now, I struggle with it a lot.”
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person that he would do something to me,” Abi detailed in a separate excerpt of the doc. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
R. Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, has already denied the allegations lodged by Abi. “His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded,” the legal professional told the outlet. “The 'filmmakers,' whoever they are, did not reach out to Mr. Kelly or his team to even allow him to deny these hurtful claims."
In 2022, R. Kelly was convicted on six out of 13 charges by a federal jury, including producing child pornography and inciting minors into illicit acts. He initially received a 30-year prison sentence, though Judge Harry D. Leinenweber later added another 20 years — 19 of which will be served concurrently with the original guilty verdict.
As REVOLT previously reported, over $500,000 of the musician’s royalty payment from Universal Music Group (UMG) went toward paying off the restitution balance owed to his victims.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.