14 DAY TRIAL // Singer Rihanna is finally breaking her silence on the February incident that left her badly bruised and bloodied, after then-boyfriend Chris Brown lashed out at her on the drive home because she wanted to read one phone message that he had received from another woman. Talking with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Good Morning America, Rihanna admits she even got back with Brown after the assault, in what she now deems one of the biggest mistakes she ever made.
Fighting back tears, the singer reveals dealing with being a victim of domestic violence was a very hard thing to do, especially since she was constantly in the spotlight. She was humiliated and embarrassed and, many a time, she truly desired the entire world would just let her be and not pay any attention to her. Then, after the bruises and the physical wounds healed, she went back in the arms of Chris Brown, without thinking, even for a second, of the kind of message that might send to girls out there who looked up to her as a role model.
“I fell in love with that person – that is embarrassing. […] When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn’t be held responsible for telling them ‘go back.’ Even if Chris never hit me again who is to say their boyfriends won’t. Who is to say that they won’t kill these girls? I just didn’t realize how much of an impact I could have on these girls’ lives until this happened. It was a wake-up call for me...” Rihanna says.
Because of her own experience, she is now in a position in which she can advise other girls and women in the same situation on how to act or, better said, react. Of course, the first impulse will always be to go back as soon as calm settles, Rihanna says, which is why victims of domestic violence must stand aside and look at their situation as if they were somebody else, from a third person’s perspective. Moreover, the singer stresses, if this happened to her, who is such a strong woman, it can certainly happen to anybody else.
“I am strong. This happened to me. I didn’t cause this, I didn’t do it. This happened to me and it could happen to anybody. […] Especially when I took myself out of that situation and I’ll say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence. ‘F’ love. Come out of the situation and look at it third person and for what it really is, then make your decision because love is so blind,” the singer further explains.
See a preview of the full interview here or below.