R. Kelly’s daughter breaks down in tears in a new documentary about his crimes


Joann ‘Buku Abi’ Kelly, R. Kelly
Getty Images (2)

R Kelly‘s daughter, Joan Kellyalso known as Buku Abi, talks about the impact her father’s crimes have had on her.

“No one wants to be the child of the father who hurts women and children here,” says Joann, 26, in the trailer for the upcoming documentary R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey. “He knows exactly why we can’t have the relationship we would have liked to have with him.”

Elsewhere in the teaser, Joann breaks down crying.

“He was my everything,” she says through tears. “For a long time I didn’t even want to believe it was happening. I didn’t know he would do anything to me, even though he was a bad person. I really feel like that one millisecond completely changed my entire life. The trailer doesn’t specify what happened to Joann in “that one millisecond.”

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R. Kelly, 57, was found guilty in 2021 of sexual abuse, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation of a child and racketeering. The following year he was convicted of producing child pornography. The rapper began serving his combined 31-year prison sentence in 2023.

R Kelly Daughter Cries In New Doc Trailer 1

R. Kelly performing at the 2016 Hliday Jam
Prince Williams/WireImage

In July, R. Kelly asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn his 2022 conviction for child pornography and having sex with a minor, claiming the charges exceeded the statute of limitations. (The PROTECT Act of 2003 ensures that there is no statute of limitations on child sex crimes.)

R. Kelly’s Karma is not the first film to explore the musician’s crimes. The 2019 Lifetime documentary Survivor R. Kelly led to new investigations that ultimately led to Kelly being arrested in February 2019 and charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Joann responded to the documentary’s claims via her Instagram Story in January 2019.

“To the people who think I should speak out against everything that is happening right now, I want you all to understand that devastated is an understatement for everything I am feeling right now,” she wrote at the time. “I pray for all the families and women affected by my father’s actions. Believe me, I am deeply affected by all of this.”

R Kelly Daughter Cries In New Doc Trailer 1

Joan Kelly
TVEI/YouTube

Although Joann said it was “difficult to process all the revelations about her father,” she noted that it had been “years since my siblings and I had seen or spoken to him” and that “my mother, siblings and I would never approve of this. supporting or being part of ANYTHING negative he has done.

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Joann also called R. Kelly a “monster” and said she didn’t need online trolls to tell her that. “I know very well who and what he is. I grew up in that house,” she wrote.

R. Kelly shares Joann, Jaah, 24, and Robert Kelly Jr., 22, with ex-wife Drea Kelly. Drea, 50, Jaah and Robert all participated R. Kelly’s Karma next to Joann.

“Just because you’re not a good husband doesn’t mean you can’t be a good father. And the fact that he didn’t even try,” Drea, who was married to R. Kelly from 1996 to 2009, says in the trailer. “What he did to me, he did to me. But you didn’t have to do it to my damn kids.”

Now a mother herself, Joann plans to be candid with her son about R. Kelly’s history.

“When my son asks questions, I will be as honest as possible,” she says in the documentary trailer. “But I’m not going to take my son to prison to visit his grandfather.”

R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Story premieres Friday, October 11 on the TVEI streaming platform.

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