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In the series, Abi, 26, addresses claims that her mother, Andrea Kelly, manipulated her and her siblings against their father.
These allegations first surfaced in 2019, when Kelly was accused of sexual abuse on multiple occasions after the Surviving R. Kelly documentary was released.
Following Abi’s public reference to her father’s estrangement as a “monster,” Kelly’s close associates told TMZ that Kelly thought Abi and her siblings had been “brainwashed” by their mother.
Joanne Kelly Comments on Mother Brainwashing Her in Docuseries
“When it comes to him feeling as if my mom has brainwashed us, I feel like it’s bull—-,” Abi, whose real name is Joanne Kelly, shared in the docuseries. “He knows exactly why we can’t have the relationship that we would’ve liked to have with him. I don’t understand how you could put your hands on my mother and then expect me to be able to have the same relationship with you.”
Andrea Kelly, who was married to Kelly from 1996 to 2009, accused him of multiple instances of physical abuse during an appearance on The View in 2018. At that time, Kelly’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
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Abi added in the docuseries that her mother endured significant mental, emotional, and spiritual pain during her relationship with Kelly. “So for you to say like, ‘Oh, she’s brainwashing them.’ It’s like no, you know exactly what you did. And I just don’t see how that, in his mind, wouldn’t affect us. … I feel like it was unfair and it’s unfair to continue to say that because we all know it’s not true.”
Abi’s Heartbreaking Allegations of Abuse
Kelly was found guilty in February 2023 of child pornography and luring youngsters into her car for sex, and she is presently serving consecutive jail terms.
Before that, he was given a 30-year term in 2022 for sex trafficking and racketeering in New York. With 19 years left on his total sentence, he should be eligible for release in 2045.
In the docuseries, Abi also shared shocking allegations of sexual abuse by her father. According to Abi, the abuse occurred when she was around 8 or 9 years old, but she didn’t report it until 2009, when she was 10.
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“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 says emotionally. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
The first mention of these claims appeared in 2019, following the release of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary when Kelly was charged with several counts of sexual assault. Kelly believed that Abi and her siblings had been “brainwashed” by their mother, according to intimate acquaintances of Kelly, when Abi publicly referred to her father’s estrangement as a “monster.”
R. Kelly’s Defense
Kelly’s legal team, led by attorney Jennifer Bonjean, has denied the allegations. In a statement to People, Bonjean said, “”Mr. Kelly is the most investigated person on the planet when it comes to allegations of child sexual abuse. If the claims had merit, we would have seen them in one of his many indictments.”
Bonjean also criticized the creators of the docuseries, stating that they did not approach Kelly or his legal team for comment before airing the claims. Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations.
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.”
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