More than five years after she showed support for those affected by R. Kelly, his daughter Buku Abi has revealed a painful truth about her own past.
In the TVEI Streaming Network’s documentary titled R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, Abi shares that she suffered abuse at the hands of her father when she was just eight or nine. “He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” she confesses in the documentary’s first episode. “I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person, that he would do something to me.”
Abi recalls being too frightened to share her secret with anyone, even her mom. During the second part of the documentary, she remembers “waking up to him touching me” while she pretended to sleep, finally finding the courage to tell her mother in 2009, when she was ten. She explains how this brief moment altered her life forever, changing who she was and dimming her inner light. After confiding in her mom, neither Abi nor her siblings returned to their father’s house, though the struggle with her past continues.
Fans find it heartbreaking that someone they once admired could cause so much pain.
R. Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, strongly denied these claims, stating that the filmmakers didn’t give Kelly a chance to respond. “His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded,” Bonjean added.
In 2022, a jury found Kelly guilty on several charges, including producing child pornography and enticing minors. He was sentenced to 30 years behind bars, which was later extended for related offenses.
After Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly aired in 2019, Abi publicly supported the accusers, acknowledging the monster people confronted her about was also her father. She said, “I am well aware of who and what he is. I grew up in that house. My choice to not speak on him and what he does is for my peace of mind. My emotional state. And for MY healing. I have to do & move in a manner that is best for me.”
