Rihanna has dismissed the feelings she once held for Chris Brown, saying that her brief reconciliation with her ex-boyfriend was "embarrassing". In her first interview since her assault by Brown in February, the 21-year-old R&B star told Diane Sawyer, host of current affairs programme 20/20, that women in abusive relationships should "F love".
"There are a lot of women who have experienced this, but not in public," Rihanna told Sawyer. "That made it really difficult. I thought, 'There goes my little bit of privacy'. It's something that nobody wants anybody to know. So here I am, the whole world knowing."
The singer explained her perspective on the events of 8 February, when police found her battered after a fight with Brown. "This happened to me," she said. "I didn't cause this. I didn't do it." But she took responsibility for an "embarrassing" – and temporary – reconciliation with Brown shortly after the incident.
"[I was] so far in love, so unconditional, that I went back," she said. "That's not what I want to teach people ... I realised that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed."
Rihanna "didn't realise how much of an impact I had on [young] girls' lives until that happened." "It was a wake-up call for me, big time ... Even if Chris never hit me again, who is to say that their boyfriend won't? Who's to say that they won't kill these girls?"
In August, Brown pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced to community service with five years of probation. As Rihanna prepares to release a new album on 23 November, Brown is trying to restart his own career with a new album. An interview with Brown is to air tonight on MTV, within hours of Rihanna's scheduled appearance on 20/20.
Speaking to Sawyer, Rihanna appeared calm, thoughtful and resolute. "I'll say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence: Don't react out of love. F love. Come out of the situation and look at it third-person and for what it really is, and then make your decision, because love is so blind."
