“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” recounts R Kelly’s daughter, says jail is a “well-suited place” for him
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Joann Kelly (stage name Buku Abi), daughter of R Kelly (born Robert Sylvester Kelly), has alleged the famous American singer sexually abused her when she was around nine years old, piling more embarrassment and shame on Kelly’s friends and family still reeling under his litany of sex abuse convictions for which he began serving a combined 30 years in jail in 2021.
Abi, now 25, disclosed in the first of a new two-part documentary series for the TVEI Streaming Network that said she first reported the abuse to Andrea her mother in 2009 when she was 10.
She did not detail the alleged abuse in the first episode of Karma: A Daughter’s Journey that the jail sentence of Kelly, 57, is well deserved.
“My father 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,” she said.
Based on “my personal experience,” she added, jail is a “well-suited place” for her famous father.
“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.
“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.”
The second episode of the documentary revealed more about the abuse Abi alleged she endured at the hands of her father when she was eight or nine years old.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she tearfully explained. “And 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 said “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.”
Abi disclosed that 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.”
However, Kelly’s attorneys released a statement denying all claims 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 said.
“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.”
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