Rihanna would prefer never to hear the name Chris Brown again, said Jane Gordon in the London Daily Mail. It was just over a year ago that the 22-year-old R&B star was physically assaulted by then-boyfriend Brown on the way to a pre–Grammy Awards party, turning what was supposed to be a night of celebration into an ordeal that ended with Brown in handcuffs and Rihanna hospitalized with a badly battered face.
“I was very confused, because he was my best friend,” the singer says. “All of a sudden, one night changed our whole lives.” Seeing the media replay pictures of her bruised, swollen face was humiliating for her. “Every time I turned on the television, seeing it plastered over every news channel, I felt like it was a natural disaster happening.”
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