[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
R. Kelly‘s daughter has come forward with the worst accusations against him yet. Buku Abi now says he sexually assaulted his own daughter as a young child.
The allegation came out amid TVEI‘s new two-part documentary R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, which premiered on Friday. In the very first episode, Buku drops the bombshell claim she was abused by her father as a child. Not only that, she says she told her mother Andrea in 2009 — when she was just 10 years old.
Related: Bad Boys Actress Arrested For Felony Assault! What Happened??
Recalling the horrific incident, the now 26-year-old shares:
“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. I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
Buku, born Joanne Kelly, adds that she believes jail is a “well-suited place” for the 57-year-old singer, as she knows from her “personal experience.” She heartbreakingly continues:
“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. 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.”
In the second episode, she opens up more about the alleged assault, saying it happened when she was 8 or 9. She recalls through tears:
“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.”
Horrible…
She eventually told her mother, and they went to the police station to file a complaint as “Jane Doe.” But sadly, it was too late. She explains in the doc:
“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.”
Oof. What a horrible feeling. It takes so much courage to speak out about something like that, especially as a child. She must’ve felt so hurt and confused when cops didn’t address her claims! Why was the statute of limitations so short??
As for what Kelly has to say for himself?? His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told People on Friday that he denies these new allegations, declaring:
“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.”
The hip hop star has already been convicted of truly horrific crimes. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex in February 2023. A year before that, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail for sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He’s currently serving 19 years of his two sentences concurrently and will be eligible for release in 2045, per the outlet.
According to the outlet’s reports, previous child porn charges had haunted the record producer for years, but he was acquitted in 2008 after a month-long trial. Just around the time all this was happening with his daughter… Ugh…
Elsewhere in the documentary, Buku shares how struggles with her father deeply impacted her mental health, leading to suicidal thoughts. She opens up:
“I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I lived or died. I remember one day, my mom and I, we went to Target and I had to use the bathroom. We went to the bathroom and she came out and I was washing my hands and she saw that my wrists were all cut up, and she just immediately dropped everything, and she was asking like, ‘What’s going on? Are you okay?’”
She continues:
“She was really worried, and in that moment, I broke down and I had to tell her, like, ‘I don’t think I’m okay. I don’t think that I can do this. I don’t think that I’m gonna make it through to live out the rest of my life.’”
Just heartbreaking!
Now, it makes even more sense why she doesn’t have a relationship with her dad. We’re so sorry for her.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources. If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org.
[Image via CBS/Tvei Network/YouTube]
