With her new album dropping on Nov. 23, you could feel the Rihanna media onslaught coming in the air. And with her two part ABC silence breaking interview — “GMA” on Thursday, “20/20” on Friday — and new Glamor cover, we’ve already started to get a look inside the world Rihanna’s been living in for the last 9 months.
Rihanna gets down and dirty when talking with the beauty mag about the fallout from her February altercation with Chris Brown. “I felt like I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level if media chaos that happened the next day,” she says in the November issue. “It was like, ‘What, there are helicopters circling my house? There are 100 people in my cul-de-sac? What do you mean, I can’t go back home?'”
But as is often the case with sufferers of domestic violence, Rihanna continued to feel like a victim as the days wore on. “That was not a photo you would show to anybody,” she said of the leaked hospital image that showed the severity of her bruises. “I felt completely taken advantage of. I was disappointed, especially when I found out the photo was (allegedly leaked by) two women.”
Dark as those days were, Rihanna has found a renewed strength and a silver lining in the horrific situation. “This happened to me, it can happen to anyone,” she says on “GMA” this Thursday. “Domestic violence is a big secret. [Women] will hide, because it’s embarrassing. My story was broadcast all over the world for people to see, and they have followed every step of my recovery. The positive thing that has come out of my situation is that people can learn from that. I want to give as much insight as I can to young women, because I feel like I represent a voice that really isn’t heard. Now I can help speak for those women.”
One way she’s doing that is by using the emotional weight of the experience to fuel her musical fire. “I put everything I’ve wanted to say for the past eight months into my music. The songs are really personal. I would not change anything about it. Even if people don’t love it, I made exactly the piece of art that I wanted to make. It’s super fearless — which is exactly how I feel right now. I am in a really good place.
And that place does involve putting a renewed focus on her romantic life. “I hope to find love in the next 10 years — that would be pretty annoying if I am 31 years old and still have never been in love.” Something tells me the outpouring of love and support Rihanna will receive from her fans as she promotes “Rated R” over the next few months should suffice until she can find her way into another person’s loving embrace.
Photo: Matthias Vriens-McGrath for Glamor; Ida Astute/ABC News