Entertainment
R. Kelly’s Daughter Buku Abi Claims He Sexually Assaulted Her As A Child
R. Kelly’s Daughter Buku Abi Alleges Singer Sexually Assaulted Her As A Child
Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, is in the news again following shocking claims by the singer’s daughter Buku Abi, born Joanne Kelly, about the abuse she experienced at the hands of her father at a young age.
In a new documentary, ‘R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey’, she recalls when the incarcerated singer snuck into her room when she was about 8 or 9 and touched her inappropriately, completely altering her life.
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” Buku says in the documentary. “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,” she continued.
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“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 added, “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.”
“I just remember waking up to him touching me and I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep,” Buku recalls crying.
After she told her mother Drea Kelly, they attempted to file an anonymous police report under “Jane Doe”, but they allegedly didn’t prosecute him because the statute of limitations had passed. “So at that point in my life, I felt like I said something for nothing,” she said.
However, R. Kelly’s lawyer made a statement to PEOPLE following the premiere of the documentary to deny the claims.
“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…. 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.”
