R. Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi is opening up about the impact her dad’s alleged sexual abuse had on her mental health.
In the new TVEI Network docuseries R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, Abi, 26, claims Kelly molested her when she was around 8 years old, and that the incident set off a domino effect of trauma that included multiple suicide attempts and a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
“For a long time I was in a really hard space mentally and so I ended up in a mental hospital, a psych ward, whatever you want to call it,” she says, “because I hit a point in my life where multiple times, I had tried to take my own life.”
Abi, who was born Joann Kelly, recalls reaching a breaking point while in the car on the way to school, crying and telling her mother Andrea Kelly she was “not okay.”
“That day she called the hospital, and she ended up checking me in, and I didn’t leave,” Abi says. “I was there for about two and a half weeks. I was on really hard suicide watch. And then for two, three months after that, I was in outpatient basically, so I had to go there every day.”
The singer also recalls an incident in which she and Andrea — who was married to R. Kelly from 1996 to 2009 — went to Target together, and Andrea noticed her daughter’s wrists had been cut.
“I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. I didn’t care if I lived or died. I didn’t care about what happened to me,” she says in the docuseries. “[My mom] saw that my wrists were all cut up, and she just immediately dropped everything and was asking, ‘What’s going on? Are you okay?’ 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 going to make it through to live out the rest of my life.’ ”
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Abi says her suicidal thoughts caused her a “lot of guilt,” as she could see the impact they had on her younger siblings Jaah, 23, and Robert Jr. 22.
“That was definitely scary,” Robert says in the show. “Waking up and not knowing, is my sister going to be alive? … Now that my sisters are older and stronger, it’s definitely subsided, but I still have my moments when they go through something hard, it’s always triggering because you never know what could be someone’s last straw, and I’ve seen both of them get very close to their last straws, including my mom.”
Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2023 after being convicted of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. The conviction followed an earlier conviction of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, for which he was handed down a 30-year sentence. He’s currently serving 19 years of his two sentences concurrently, and will be eligible for release in 2045.
Through an attorney, Kelly denied Abi’s claims of abuse, which she alleged happened after she awoke in the middle of the night to him “touching” her.
“Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations,” his attorney Jennifer Bonjean previously said in a statement to PEOPLE. “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.”
Michael Tullberg/Getty; Chicago Police Department via Getty
Abi says in the docuseries she was initially “too scared” to tell anyone about the incident, but ultimately reported it to Andrea in 2009, when she was 10 years old. The series says Abi and Andrea went to the police and filed a complaint as Jane Doe, but, Abi says, “They couldn’t prosecute him because I waited too long.”
She now says she’s “still in the process of learning to love” and “trust” herself, but has belief in her abilities.
Shorty after the show was released, Abi shared a lengthy Instagram post explaining her intentions behind the project, saying she did it for her, her 13-month-old son Omni, her family and her peace of mind.
“I DO NOT ‘hate’ MY FATHER. Nor do I blindly follow my mother,” she wrote. “I’m not angry. I’m not looking for revenge. I’m not looking for clout.”
R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey is streaming now on TVEI Network.
If you 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. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
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