R Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi has claimed the disgraced singer sexually abused her as a child.
Ms Abi, who was born JoAnn Kelly, has opened up in a new interview to say that her father abused her in the early 2000s in Illinois.
The 26-year-old has spoken out on the documentary R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, which is now airing on the TVEI Network online.
“He was my everything,” she said in the 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.
"I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mum.”
Kelly was married to actress Andrea Lee from 1996 to 2009 and they had JoAnn in 1998, a daughter Jaah in 2000 and Robert Jr in 2002.
Ms Abi, aged 10, told her mother about what Kelly had done to her and they went to the police in Illinois but were told the offence had been too historic to press charges.
Previous US law prevented sex crime allegations from being logged more than 10 years after they happened. It is understood this stopped the police from investigating.
The law was changed in 2019, the same year that
The 57-year-old was convicted in 2021 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison the next year. He was convicted on charges of racketeering and eight counts of sex trafficking.
US District Judge Ann Donnelly, who handed down the sentence, said: “These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years.
“Using your status and celebrity… you had a system of people that you used to lure young fans into your orbit.
“Having your minions troll for young people at the mall… handing out your phone number… for the opportunity to meet R Kelly.”
Ms Abi said she suffered abuse at her father’s hands when she was around eight or nine.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she says through tears in the documentary.
“And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
R Kelly’s representation could not be reached for comment.
He has previously denied the allegations.
A statement sent to People magazine read: “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.”
