After months of silence, Bajan pop star, Rihanna spoke wit h Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. The interview, a teaser for the real deal interview to air tomorrow on 20/20, showed an emotional Rihanna explaining how she felt embarrassed by what happened on that unforgettable night . Rihanna said "don't react off of love, F love!". She explained that leaving Chris was important to her because of the message it sent to young girls if she remained in an abusive relationship. It is clear that she takes her role model status seriously and realizes how her off stage behavior can influence young girls' lives.  The most startling moment for me is that Rihanna said she was embarrassed.   Rihanna has no reason to be embarrassed, Chris Brown is the culprit and the one who should be embarrassed.  I applaud Rihanna for taking responsbility for her actions i.e. going back to Chris even after the brutal attack.  This is an empowering message to young women everywhere.  Rihanna is making it clear that she will not be the victim and she doesn't want any other young woman to be one either.  Its a powerful message and I'm glad that she has embraced her (albeit  "unrealistic") role model status by breaking her silence.

Here is the full text of her interview this morning:

I am strong. This happened to me I didn't cause this I didn't do it. This happened to me and it can happen to anybody. There are a lot of women who experienced what I did but not in public so it made it really difficult. I just felt like oh my God here it goes my little bit of privacy just exposing something that nobody wants anybody to know so here I am the whole world knowing.

Diane Sawyer: Why be ashamed? Rihanna: Because I didn't want people to think...I fell in love with that person. That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing that that's the type of person that I fell in love with. So far in love, so unconditional in love that I went back.
Diane: On average it takes a woman 7 times before she leaves
Rihanna: 8 or 9 actually (tearfully) and I don't want that to happen. That's not what I want to teach people. But again, people I'm a human being and people put me on a very unrealistic pedestal and all these expectations. I'm not perfect . Also, it's pretty natural for that to be the first reaction. It's completely normal to go back. You start lying to yourself . The minute the physical wounds go away -- you, you want this thing to go away. This is a memory you don't want to have ever again.

When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result into some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible for telling them to go back. Even If Chris never hit me again who's to say that their boyfriend won't who's to say that they won't kill these girls. These are young girls...and I could not. I just didn't realize how much of an impact I had on these young girls lives until that happened. It was a wake up call, it was a wake up call for me big time. Especially when I took myself out of the situation and I'll say that to any girl whose going through domestic violence. Don't react off of love - F love! To 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.

 

Posted by: on Nov 05, 2009