Legal and personal woes continue to pile on for R. Kelly.
The embattled hitmaker, currently serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking concurrent to a 20-year prison sentence for enticement of minors for sex, is the subject of public scrutiny again for similar allegations.
This time, however, they’re being wielded by his own child.
Speaking out publicly for the first time, Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi (born Joann Kelly) is alleging she suffered sexual abuse at the GRAMMY winner’s hands during her childhood.
Revealed during TVEI Streaming Network’s new two-episode documentary ‘Karma: A Daughter’s Journey,’ Buki shares what encouraged her to finally come forward.
“He 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 said in ‘Karma.’ “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”.
Later, she discusses the aftermath of the traumatic event.
“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 says. “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.”
Recounting the horrific experience, Joann says she was 8 or 9-years-old the first time it happened.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she shared. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
At 10-years-old (in 2009), Buku finally told her mother – dancer-choreographer Andrea Kelly – what happened and they filed a complaint under a “Jane Doe” alias.
“They [the authorities] 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 said.
Episode 1 of ‘Karma’ is streaming now. See the official trailer above.
