R. Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi is sharing her aspect of the story.
In TVEI Streaming Community’s new two-part docuseries Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, Abi, 26, responds to claims that her mom, Andrea Kelly, brainwashed her and the disgraced R&B singer’s youngsters towards him.
The claims got here in 2019, when Kelly was going through sexual abuse allegations following the discharge of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary. On the time, Abi referred to as her estranged father a “monster” — and sources near Kelly instructed TMZ he believed she had been “brainwashed” by her mom.
“In the case of him feeling as if my mother has brainwashed us, I really feel prefer it’s bull—-,” Abi (who was born Joanne Kelly) says in Karma. “He is aware of precisely why we are able to’t have the connection that we’d’ve appreciated to have with him. I don’t perceive how you may put your fingers on my mom after which anticipate me to have the ability to have the identical relationship with you.”
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Abi’s mother Andrea was married to Kelly from 1996 to 2009 and, in 2018, accused him of a number of incidents of bodily abuse whereas on The View. (Kelly’s reps didn’t reply to a request for remark on the time.)
“My mother went by way of rather a lot. She went by way of a whole lot of psychological and emotional and non secular turmoil. I assumed I used to be by no means going to get my mama again,” Abi, who’s additionally a musical artist, says of the alleged abuse within the docuseries. “So so that you can say like, ‘Oh, she’s brainwashing them.’ It’s like no, you already know precisely what you probably did. And I simply don’t see how that, in his thoughts, would not have an effect on us. … I really feel prefer it was unfair and it’s unfair to proceed to say that as a result of everyone knows it’s not true.”
In a Chicago courthouse in February 2023, Kelly was sentenced to twenty years in jail on expenses of kid pornography and enticement of minors for intercourse. One yr earlier, he was sentenced to 30 years in jail for racketeering and intercourse trafficking expenses based mostly out of New York. Kelly is presently serving 19 years of his two sentences concurrently; he might be eligible for launch in 2045.
TVEI
Elsewhere within the docuseries, Abi claims that the “Ignition (Remix)” singer sexually abused her as a baby and that she first reported it to her mom in 2009, when she was 10 years outdated.
“He was my all the things. For a very long time, I didn’t even need to imagine that it occurred. I didn’t know that even when he was a foul person who he would do one thing to me,” she says within the sequence, now streaming. “I used to be too scared to inform anyone. I used to be too scared to inform my mother.”
In an announcement to PEOPLE, Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean mentioned, “Mr. Kelly is essentially the most investigated particular person on the planet in terms of allegations of kid sexual abuse. If the claims had advantage, we’d have seen them in one in every of his many indictments.”
Bonjean beforehand instructed PEOPLE in an announcement, “Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations. His ex-wife made the identical allegation years in the past, and it was investigated by the Illinois Division of Kids & Household Companies and was unfounded…. And the ‘filmmakers,’ whoever they’re, didn’t attain out to Mr. Kelly or his workforce to even enable him to disclaim these hurtful claims.”
For those who suspect little one abuse, name the Childhelp Nationwide Baby Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Baby or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is on the market 24/7 in additional than 170 languages.
