R. Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi has come forward about the alleged sexual abuse she suffered during her childhood.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Abi – birth name Joanne Kelly – would be fronting a new documentary about the disgraced musician, which featured “raw and emotional” interviews with Abi and her siblings Jaah Kelly and Robert Kelly Jr, as well as their mother Drea Kelly, who was married to R Kelly from 1996 to 2009.
In the first episode of R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, Abi alleges the singer abused her as a child. “He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” Abi said in the first episode of the two-part series, per People.
“I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person, that he would do something to me. I was too scared to tell anybody,” she added. “I was too scared to tell my mom.”
In the second episode, she recalled “waking up to him touching me” while she pretended to sleep, and said she first reported it to her mother in 2009 as a 10-year-old.
“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 continued.
“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.”
Buku said after eventually telling her mother what happened, they went to the police and filed a complaint as “Jane Doe,” but, as she adds in the documentary: “They couldn’t prosecute him because I waited too long. So at that point in my life, I felt like I said something for nothing.”
In a statement to shared with People, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said Kelly “vehemently denies” the allegations.
“His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded,” said Bonjean.
“And the ‘filmmakers,’ whoever they are, did not reach out to Mr. Kelly or his team to even allow him to deny these hurtful claims.”
Gregory Preston, the uncle of R&B Singer R. Kelly, speaks to the press following Kelly’s sentencing hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building on February 23, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. Kelly, who is currently serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering and sex trafficking, was sentenced on federal charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor for sex. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Following the release of Lifetime’s 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, Abi had shared her support for the singer’s accusers in a statement, saying: “The same monster you all [are] confronting me about is my father. I am well aware of who and what he is.
“I grew up in that house. My choice to not speak on him and what he does is for my peace of mind. My emotional state. And for MY healing. I have to do & move in a manner that is best for me.”
Earlier this year, a federal appellate court in Chicago upheld R. Kelly‘s conviction and 20-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography and child enticement.
The singer was found guilty of six of 13 counts of owning and producing child pornography and enticing a minor back in September. In February, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but will serve almost all of his sentence simultaneously alongside the jail term he received last year for racketeering and trafficking.
The additional sentence means that in total, Kelly will now serve 31 years in prison and he will not be eligible for release until he is 80 years old.
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