R. Kelly’s Daughter Accuses Singer of Sexually Abusing Her When She Was a Child

Photo Credit: R. Kelly by comechatwidmi / CC by 3.0

The daughter of disgraced singer R. Kelly accuses him of sexually abusing her when she was a child.

Buku Abi, the 26-year-old daughter of disgraced singer R. Kelly, has accused the singer of sexually abusing her when she was a child. Abi, a musician herself, made the claim as part of a two-episode documentary, Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, in which she says her father abused her when she was about eight or nine years old.

The 57-year-old Kelly was imprisoned in June 2022 with charges of racketeering and sex trafficking after decades of allegations of misconduct involving young women and children. He was sentenced to 30 years after he was found guilty of a scheme to entice and sexually exploit underage children and young aspiring singers.

Abi says she first reported her father’s alleged abuse to her mother in 2009, when she was about 10 years old. “He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened,” she says in the documentary. “I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person that he would do something to me.”

Kelly’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have him acquitted and demand a retrial, arguing his defense team was ineffective and prosecutors “misused” the racketeering charge against him. He was found guilty of racketeering amounting to a criminal enterprise for his “entourage of managers and aides” who helped the singer meet girls, and keep them “obedient and quiet.”

Abi’s allegations against her father come as Sean “Diddy” Combs faces a similar trial, having appeared before Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan federal court last week. Combs was charged last month with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, based on allegations dating back nearly 20 years. New allegations against Diddy continue to pile up, with figures like R. Kelly and Kanye West named.