R Kelly's daughter Buku Abi claims singer abused her when she was a child: 'I was too scared to tell anybody'

R Kelly’s daughter, Buku Abi, who was born as Joanne Kelly, is opening up. The rapper's daughter shared her side of the story months after he was convicted on child pornography charges. In TVEI Streaming Network’s new two-part docuseries?Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, the 26-year-old alleged she was abused as a child by her father, claiming the alleged instance happened when she was 8 or 9. She also responded to the claims that her mother, Andrea Kelly, brainwashed her and the disgraced R&B singer’s children against him.

R Kelly's daughter alleges he assaulted her

Buku Abi, who is also a musician, for the first time, opened up about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, alleging she was one of his victims. “I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she said in the documentary, adding “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”

“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,” Joanne said of her father in the documentary. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”

Abi further claimed that she couldn't tell her mom until she was 10. After she finally mustered the courage to tell her mom, they filed a police complaint against Kelly under the pseudonym “Jane Doe” but the police “couldn’t prosecute him because I waited too long.”

R Kelly's team responds to allegations

Kelly's team has vehemently denied the allegations. In a statement, obtained by People, the hip-hop mogul's team said: “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.”

Buku Abi reacts to claims that her mom brainwashed her

“When it comes to him feeling as if my mom has brainwashed us, I feel like it’s bull----,” Abi said in the new documentary.?“He knows exactly why we can’t have the relationship that we would've liked to have with him. I don’t understand how you could put your hands on my mother and then expect me to be able to have the same relationship with you.”

“My mom went through a lot. She went through a lot of mental emotional and spiritual turmoil. I thought I was never going to get my mama back,” Abi said in Karma. “So for you to say like, ‘Oh, she’s brainwashing them.’ It’s like no, you know exactly what you did. And I just don’t see how that, in his mind, wouldn't affect us. … I feel like it was unfair and it’s unfair to continue to say that because we all know it’s not true.”

About R Kelly

In February 2023, Kelly was?sentenced to 20 years in prison?on charges of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. In 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison?for racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Kelly is currently serving 19 years of his two sentences concurrently. He will be eligible for release in 2045.