The daughter of R. Kelly has come forward, saying that her father sexually abused her when she was a child.
Buku Abi, born Joanne Kelly, made the claims in a new TVEI documentary series, “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Story,” according to USA Today and Entertainment Weekly.
“It was really hard. He was my everything,” Abi, 26, said in the first episode of the two-part documentary. “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.”
In the series, Abi says that the first instance of molestation happened when she was about 8 or 9.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she said, according to USA Today. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep,” adding that “from that moment on, I was a different person.”
Abi said that she spent time in a mental institution and attempted suicide multiple times as a result of the abuse.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s attorney, said in a statement to People that, “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.”
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