DECIDER
R. Kelly‘s daughter, Joanne Kelly, is speaking out about her father’s crimes in a new documentary set to come out later this month.
The Tvei Network released a new trailer for its upcoming doc R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey, showing Joanne, her brother Robert Kelly Jr., and her mother Drea Kelly reflecting on where they stand with the convicted R&B singer.
“Nobody wants to be the child of the father that is out here hurting women and children,” Joanne says in the trailer. “He knows exactly why we can’t have the relationship that we would have liked to have with him.”
R. Kelly was convicted in 2022 on multiple charges relating to child sexual abuse.
Joanne and Drea also seemingly hint that they suffered some type of mistreatment by him. The official description mentions that Joanne reveals a “heartbreaking secret that shattered her childhood and changed her forever” in the doc.
“He was my everything,” Joanne says through tears. “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.”
Drea also becomes emotional as she says, “What he did to me, he did to me. But you didn’t have to do it to my damn kids.”
The Tvei documentary also features photos from their time growing up with the R&B singer.
Looking towards the future, Joanne says that she plans to be “as truthful as possible” with her son if he asks about Kelly’s crimes but notes, “I will not be taking my son to a prison to meet his grandfather.”
Kelly is currently completing his prison sentence at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center after he was convicted on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2022, he was also found guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one of racketeering in New York and sentenced to 30 years.
A judge in the federal appeals court ordered that Kelly serve the 20-year sentence simultaneously with the 30-year sentence, per The Guardian.
The singer’s crimes and other allegations have been documented for television before – most notably in Lifetime’s powerful docu-series Surviving R. Kelly in 2019.
R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey premieres on the Tvei Network Oct. 11.
Scroll up to check out the official trailer for R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.
