R Kelly’s daughter to make documentary about her father’s crimes
The life and crimes of R Kelly is set to be rehashed in a new documentary. However, this upcoming project is being fronted by the musician’s own daughter Joanne, who is plotting to explore his history and disgrace from a unique, personal perspective.
The documentary will be a feature-length film which promises to contain “raw and emotional” interviews with Joanne, along with her siblings, Jaah Kelly and Robert Kelly Jr. Her mother, Drea Kelly, who was married to R Kelly from 1996 to 2009, will also speak on the topic.
Through these interviews, the family discuss the “dark reality of living in the shadow of one of the most notorious figures in music.” Not only will this look back at Kelly’s hugely successful career, but it will dive into his 2019 arrest and subsequent convictions for sex trafficking and sexual abuse.
“Nobody wants to be the child of the father that is out here hurting women and children,” Joanne says in the trailer as she dives into the life of her disgraced father. It sounds like an incredibly difficult project to undertake given Joanne’s personal connection to the musician, but to her, that’s exactly why she needed to be the one making it.
The film will also see Joanne reveal “a heartbreaking secret that shattered her childhood and changed her forever.” In the trailer, she says, “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.”
It seems that the documentary is set to reveal that Kelly’s crimes also entered his family home as his ex-wife says in the trailer, “Just because you’re not a good husband doesn’t mean you can’t be a good father – and the fact that he doesn’t even try,” adding, “What he did to me, he did to me. But you didn’t have to do it to my damn kids.”
Earlier this year, a federal court upheld R Kelly’s conviction and his 20-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography and child enticement. In September, he was found guilty of six of 13 counts of owning and producing child pornography and enticing a minor. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he will serve simultaneously alongside his original jail term.
In total, Kelly will now serve 31 years in prison and he will not be eligible for release until he is 80 years old. The documentary, R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey is out on October 11th.