R. Kelly’s ongoing allegations of sexual abuse and assault have taken a devastating tole on his eldest daughter, Buku Abi. On Thursday’s (July 11) episode of Growing Up Hip Hop Atlanta, Abi admitted to attempting suicide due to all of the social media bullying that she has dealt with because of her father.
“Having to deal with everything in the media with my father is not easy,” confessed the 21-year-old. “People are constantly like, ‘How do you feel about the scandals?’ I don’t give a f**k about the scandals. I have an issue with my father. I had to drop out of school. I’ve had parents not let their children hang out with me. I spend a lot of days, or nights, crying. I’m sad, and I have the right to be sad.”
Buku, whose birth name is Joann Kelly, credits music with saving her life. “People don’t realize how bad that hurts. It’s like I didn’t do anything, you know? I didn’t ask to be here,” she said. “We’re still trying to heal from a lot to the point where I tried to take my life. That’s a lot.”
Though Abi and her siblings have been estranged from their father, Kelly recorded a public birthday message for her in March. The 52-year-old Grammy winning singer was most recently arrested in Chicago Thursday, this time on federal charges of sex trafficking. According to a 13-count indictment released Friday (July 12), the Northern District of Illinois accuses Kelly of producing and receiving child pornography, “enticing minors” to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiring to intimidate victims, obstruction of justice, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover a video tapes of him having sex with young girls.
In addition, Kelly is accused of federal racketeering charges “for allegedly operating a criminal enterprise that promoted Kelly’s music and recruited women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity.” The indictments also charges Kelly’s former employees, Derrel McDavid, 58, and Milton Brown, 53. McDavid faces one count of conspiracy to receive child pornography, two counts of receiving child pornography, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Milton is charged in the indictment with a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Kelly appeared in court Friday (July 12), but is expected to remain locked up until at least July 16.