R. Kelly’s oldest daughter, Buku Abi, born Joann Kelly, is telling her painful story in the new two-part documentary “Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.”
In the TVEI Streaming Network special, which premiered Friday, Abi opens up about being abused by her father when she was 8 or 9 years old.
“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 shares in the first episode. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
But Abi says she ultimately did tell her mom, Andrea, in 2009 when she was 10 years old.
Andrea, a former backup dancer for Kelly, was married to the R&B star from 1996 until their separation in 2006. Together they had three kids.
“After I told my mom, I didn’t go over [to his house] anymore,” Abi, now 26, says. “My brother Robert and sister Jaah, we didn’t go over there anymore. And even up until now I struggle with it a lot.”
“I really feel like that one millisecond completely just changed my whole life,” she adds. “[It] changed who I was as a person and changed the sparkle I had and the light I used to carry.”
The second episode of the documentary reveals more about the abuse Abi endured at the hands of Kelly.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she tearfully explains. “I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
Abi and her mom eventually went to the police to file a complaint but she says “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.”
Kelly’s attorneys released a statement Friday denying all the claims made in the documentary.
“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,” Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean told People. “The ‘filmmakers,’ whoever they are, did not reach out to Mr. Kelly or his team to even allow him to deny these hurtful claims.”
Andrea over the years has accused Kelly of physical, verbal and mental abuse, including in the 2019 documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Meanwhile, Abi says life as the daughter of the disgraced singer has been difficult and she has struggled with suicidal thoughts.
“I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I lived or died,” she shared.
Abi says, based on her “personal experience,” she believes jail is a “well-suited place” for her famous father.
Kelly is currently serving a 20-year sentence on charges in Chicago of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal of that conviction.
He has also been sentenced to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking charges filed in New York, for which he has also filed an appeal.