R. Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi alleges that her father abused her when she was a child. She opens up about it for the first time publicly in a new documentary titled Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” the 26-year-old says of the alleged incident. “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. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
According to Buku, born Joann Kelly, R. Kelly assaulted her when she was about 8 or 9 years old while she was sleeping. “I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she says in tears. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
Buku eventually told her mother, Andrea Kelly, when she was 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 said. “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.”
Buku later said on Instagram she doesn’t hate her father and wasn’t looking for clout, noting she only opened up for her son and “peace of mind.”
Two episodes of Karma: A Daughter’s Journey are now available on TVEI Networks. R. Kelly denied the allegations via his attorney Jennifer Bonjean.
If you are affected by abuse and needing support, or know someone who is, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). You can also chat online at thehotline.org or online.rainn.org, respectively.
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