Buku Abi, the daughter of R. Kelly, has accused him of childhood sexual assault. She made the allegation in a new two-part documentary series titled Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.
Abi, who is also the daughter of Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea “Drea” Kelly, gave details about her alleged abuse in one episode of the series.
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t think, even if he was a bad person, that he would do something to me,” said Abi, whose legal name is Joann Kelly, in the documentary. She added that she “was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
Abi continued, “I really feel like that one millisecond completely changed my whole life, changed who I was as a person, and dimmed the sparkle and light I used to carry.” She also noted that after confiding in her mother, she and her siblings, Robert and Jaah, stopped visiting their father.
This revelation comes shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected R. Kelly’s appeal of his 2022 federal conviction for charges involving child pornography and luring underage girls for sex. This conviction is one of two cases in which he was found guilty of sex crimes.
READ ALSO: Supreme Court rejects to hear R. Kelly’s appeal in child sex crimes conviction
In 2019, Kelly’s birthday message to Abi raised eyebrows when he posted a video on Instagram and Twitter, singing and telling his estranged daughter, “Happy birthday, baby. Daddy loves you. No matter what, I love you so much.”
Abi has distanced herself from her father, changing her last name and condemning him publicly in January 2019. She labeled him a “monster” and revealed that it had been years since she and her siblings had any contact with him. Abi also addressed their strained relationship during the damning allegations highlighted in Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly docuseries.
Buku Abi is one of R. Kelly’s three children with Andrea Kelly, whom he was married to from 1996 to 2009. She reiterated that she has no relationship with her father, stating, “It has been years since my siblings and I have seen or spoken to him.”
READ ALSO: R. Kelly’s daughter opens up on why she will never take her son to visit Kelly in prison
