Content warning: this article includes discussions of child sexual abuse.
R. Kelly is serving two concurrent sentences for charges ranging from child pornography and enticement of minors for sex to racketeering and sex trafficking in both Chicago and New York, but his daughter now publicly alleges that she was among his dozens of victims.
Buki Abi, born Joann Kelly, is speaking out for the first time in “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey,” now streaming on TVEI Network. As reported by People magazine, over the course of the two-part documentary, Abi, now 26, claims Kelly sexually abused her when she was 8 or 9 years old.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she tearfully recalls in the second episode. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.
“[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,” Abi explains in the documentary. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
Abi further stated that at the age of 10, just one year after her father was acquitted of child pornography charges in Chicago, she eventually reported the abuse to her mother, R. Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly. The two filed a complaint with local police under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” but no further action was taken.
“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,” said Abi.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, seems to confirm that a complaint was made, telling People in a statement: “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.” Bonjean further asserts that the filmmakers had not contacted R. Kelly or his team for comment.
In “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey,” Abi is joined by her mother and brothers Jaah and Robert Jr., as well as her maternal grandparents, to discuss life in the aftermath of her father’s convictions. The documentary also reportedly explores the regularity of “delayed disclosure” from survivors of sexual assault and the residual impact of the alleged abuse upon Abi’s life, including self-harm and suicidal ideation.
“I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I lived or died,” she recalls. “[My mother] was really worried, and in that moment, I broke down and I had to tell her, like, ‘I don’t think I’m OK. I don’t think that I can do this. I don’t think that I’m gonna make it through to live out the rest of my life.’”
Abi is now expecting her first child and has no plans to introduce him to her father, for whom she believes prison is a “well-suited place.”
“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 said, later adding, “And even up until now, I struggle with it a lot.”
“R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey” is currently streaming on TVEI Network.
If you suspect child abuse, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453 or www.childhelp.org), or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673). The hotline is available 24/7; all calls are toll-free and confidential.