Who is R. Kelly’s daughter Joann Kelly, aka Buku Abi, and what has she said about her disgraced dad? In R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, she says she won’t take her son to meet him in prison
A new documentary featuring the family of disgraced rapper R. Kelly sees his daughter Joann opening up about her ordeal – so just who is the strong 26-year-old who says music ‘saved her life’?
R. Kelly’s daughter Joann Kelly is seen getting emotional in the new trailer for her coming documentary, R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, which premieres on the TVEI Network on October 11.
“Nobody wants to be the child of the father that is out here hurting women and children,” she says in the clip, which also features an interview with her brother, Robert Kelly Jr. “He knows exactly why we can’t have the relationship that we would have liked to have with him,” she added.
“He was my everything. 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,” she continued.
Joann, who goes by the moniker Buku Abi, has only occasionally opened up about her family life since her father was convicted in New York on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in 2021, per Page Six.
In a recent series of Instagram Stories, Joann clarified that she does not “hate” her father, nor does she “blindly follow [her] mother”, but adds that she will “never sacrifice truth over ‘honour’”.
Here’s what we know about R-Kelly’s 26-year-old daughter, who’s speaking out against him: