Following the February 8, 2009 incident, when Chris Brown lashed out at girlfriend Rihanna and beat her to a senseless pulp, the “Umbrella” hitmaker is finally publicly speaking about the assault and what it was like to move past it. In a two-part interview with Diane Sawyer, Rihanna has even detailed how Brown attacked her, in what he deems in a statement to MTV a very ill-advised move on her part.

Of course, Rihanna is entitled to speak her mind if she feels that will help her in any way, as well as other women who might find themselves in a situation in which they’re being physically and emotionally abused by their partner, but some things are better kept private, Brown says. The things he’s referring to are, it seems, the particulars of the altercation itself, namely the very things she went public with just the other day, when she revealed the chilling details of the attack.

“While I respect Rihanna’s right to discuss the specific events of February 8, I maintain my position that all of the details should remain a private matter between us. I do appreciate her support and wish her the best. I am extremely sorry for what I did, and I accept accountability for my actions. At this point, I am taking the proper steps to learn about me and grow from my mistakes. I only hope that others in similar situations can learn from our experience as well. Abuse of any kind is always wrong. The rest I leave it to God.” Chris Brown says in a statement to the aforementioned media outlet.

As we also reported the other day, the way in which Rihanna described the attack painted Brown in a very negative light – not that there was any way things could have been otherwise, for that matter. He looked more or less dead in the eyes as he kept hitting her, and would not accept that she demanded he did something that she felt was the right thing, Rihanna told Sawyer in the second part of her tell-all interview. What followed next was “ugly,” the singer further said almost unable to fight back tears.

“I caught him in a lie. And he wouldn’t tell the truth… […] And… it was ugly. I fended him off with my feet from one… side of the car, but… it was not like, it was not like a fight with each other. I just… I really just wanted it to stop… I was bleeding. I was swollen in my face. So there was no way of me getting home, except for, my next option was to get out of the car and walk. Start walking in a gown, in a bloody face. So I really don’t know what my plan was. I didn’t have a plan. That whole night was not part of my plan.” Rihanna said.