Buku Abi, daughter of R. Kelly, has come forward to discuss the alleged sexual abuse she endured during her childhood.
Recently, it was announced that Abi—whose birth name is Joanne Kelly—will be featured in a new documentary about the disgraced musician. This documentary includes “raw and emotional” interviews with Abi and her siblings, Jaah Kelly and Robert Kelly Jr., along with their mother Drea Kelly, who was married to R. Kelly from 1996 to 2009.
In the first episode of R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, Abi claims the singer abused her as a child. “He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” Abi states in the series, according to People.
“I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person, that he would do something to me. I was too scared to tell anybody,” she continues. “I was too scared to tell my mom.”
In the second episode, she describes “waking up to him touching me” while pretending to sleep, noting that she first reported the abuse to her mother in 2009 when she was just 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,” she reflects....Read Full Article [Click Here>]
“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.”
Abi recounts that after eventually disclosing the incidents to her mother, they went to the police and filed a complaint as “Jane Doe,” but she adds in the documentary: “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 a statement shared with People, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said Kelly “vehemently denies” the 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 stated. “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.”
After the release of Lifetime’s 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, Abi expressed her support for the singer’s accusers, stating: “The same monster you all [are] confronting me about is my father. I am well aware of who and what he is. (NME)
