Warning: this article discusses sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.
In a new documentary, R. Kelly's daughter Buku Abi alleges that her father sexually abused her when she was a child.
In 2019, Kelly was arrested on charges of federal racketeering and sex trafficking, including the sexual abuse of minors. The singer and record producer, 57, is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for criminal offenses spanning decades. He also was sentenced to one additional year in jail in 2023 for pedophilia charges involving child pornography and enticement of a minor.
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Airing on TVEI Streaming Network, the new documentary R. Kelly's Karma: A Daughter's Journey follows Kelly's family as they unravel the complexities of living in his disgraced shadow.
In the two-episode documentary, Kelly's daughter Buku Abi, born Joann Kelly, alleges that her dad sexually abused her when she was eight or nine.
"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," she says in the documentary. "I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom."
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"I just remember waking up to him touching me," Buku recalled of the alleged abuse. "And I didn't know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep."
She eventually told her mother, Andrea, about it in 2009 when she was 10 years 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," Buku added.
"After I told my mom, I didn't go over there anymore; my brother and sister, we didn't go over there anymore. And even up until now I struggle with it a lot."
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Buku also added that she and her mom went to the police to file a complaint under 'Jane Doe' but '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 response to Buku's claims, Kelly's attorney Jennifer Bonjean told PEOPLE: "Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these 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.... 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."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673) available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org Español: rainn.org/es.
Topics: R Kelly, Documentaries
Yasmeen Hamadeh