Here are more excerpts from Rihanna’s Elle cover story – and Elle has released the photo shoot too, which is… okay. I’m pretty tired of Rihanna being photographed in her underwear, but there are some shots where she’s fully clothed, so that’s always nice – you can see Elle’s slideshow here, and here you can read the earlier excerpts that I covered today. When Us Weekly covered this, they began the story by noting that Rihanna and Chris Brown “have been secretly hooking up for over a year, multiple sources have confirmed to Us Weekly.” Here’s more of Rihanna’s interview:
Rihanna on the fan reaction: “I respect what other people have to say. The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently,” cover girl Rihanna tells ELLE of the furious reactions from fans and critics about reconnecting with Brown, 22, despite their brutal past. “It’s very hard for me to accept, but I get it,” she says of the criticism. “People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that’s all right. I don’t hate them for it.”
She’s not going to apologize. “Because tomorrow I’m still going to be the same person,” she says. “I’m still going to do what I want to do.”
The 2009 assault: “It gave me guns,” she says of the trauma. “I was like, well, f***. They know more about me than I want them to know. It’s embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of bring it. I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I just want them to know the truth.”
She’s lost her privacy but gained freedom: “I have more freedom the more people know about me,” she reasons. “It’s like, one less skeleton in the closet, one less burden, one less secret; now you know that, so you can say what you want about it. I don’t have anything to hide.”
Channeling her pain while recording Rated R: “I was going through the hardest time of my life. I was angry, sad, confused, torn. I was still in love,” she admitted of the dark record. “And I needed to talk about it. That was the only way I could get peace, because it was in my head, and I couldn’t leave it there.”
On having kids: “It could be tomorrow. It could be 20 years from now. I just feel like when the time is right, God will send me a little angel. But first, of course, I have to find a man. I mean, there’s a very important missing piece to the puzzle here!”
On finding that man: “I feel like it’s hard for everybody! I don’t think it has anything to do with being famous. There’s just a major drought out there. […] But I just need to find the person who balances me out, because then things like my schedule won’t matter. I’ve done it before, so I know I can do it again.”
[From Us Weekly, Elle Magazine]
I’m having problems deciphering the meaning behind the quotes about the 2009 beating in retrospect. “It gave me guns… I was like, well, f***. They know more about me than I want them to know. It’s embarrassing.” I understand that part – the humiliation, the fact that everyone got up in her business, the fact that Chris’s defenders came out of the woodwork and everyone was walking on eggshells – that I understand. What I don’t get is, “But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of bring it. I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I just want them to know the truth.” What truth? What opening? It would be different if Rihanna was speaking as an advocate for battered women, but as she just made clear, she’s still involved and intertwined with her abuser. Where’s the liberation in that?
In other Rihanna news, OK! Magazine claims that Ashton Kutcher has called off his fling with Rihanna because he doesn’t “trust” her. A source claims, “When Rihanna arrived at his house she didn’t tell him she’d been photographed by paparazzi. He was very specific that she check to make sure she wasn’t being followed, and the way he sees it, she either screwed up or — even worse — tipped the photographers off herself. She went off on him and told him she suspected him of calling the press. The way she sees it, he has more to gain from the fling than she does.” Yeah… I believe all of that, actually. Ashton is the douche who gets pissy about one of his “girlfriends” getting photographed, and Rihanna is the girl who is all, “WTF? I am the one who is slumming, dude.”
Photos courtesy of Elle.
I think she mean liberation for the secret. Now she’s all balls to the wall, “yeah I am still doing him, yeah I smoke hella weed.” Like she doesn’t care who knows what and and do as she pleases despite the cameras because now people already know her biggest secret.
Yes, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, there.
It’s not like she’s speaking in code. Once her deepest, darkest secret was out there, and people were talking and it didn’t kill her or end her career, she gained the sort of freedom to be exactly who she is and just not give a toss what anyone said. That is a pretty heady realization to make at her age and in her position. You’ve got all these people telling you how to act and what to wear to sell records and suddenly she realized none of that shit matters.
I’m kind of over beating up verbally on Rihanna to get her to act they way she should. Let her me. Let her make her mistakes.
Agree.
Why all this hype about Rihanna?
She is a mediocre singer, selling sex and herself all the way up to success and a very bad example for young and older women saying that domestic violence is fine and that you can be buddy-buddy with the person who smashed your head against a car’s window and sent you to hospital.
People like her shouldn’t be on a cover of a magazine or covered in millions for every stupid things that comes out of her mouth.
Well she is the creation of an ex-crack dealer who splits all women into “bitches” or “whores” so what more could we expect?
The trouble is, even if she goes away she will be replaced by someone with a just as underwhelming talent and faux-hardcore persona. Better the devil you know, I guess!
Who is the ex crack dealer? Jay Z?
The flaw with this logic though, is that Jay Z was originally trying to groom Rihanna as the “island Beyonce”. Just look at her styling when her very first cd came out. It wasn’t until “Good Girl Gone Bad” that she had more control over her styling and her music. She was no longer singing Beyonce’s cast off material. The Rihanna that we see today is a reflection of who she really is…no who Jay Z was grooming her to be.
Agreed.
I lost all of my respect for Rihanna. She seems like such a try-hard. She wants to be edgy, but she just looks trashy. The whole thing with Chris Beatherdown showed that she has no self respect. She is no role model for younger girls.
Exactly. Plus she still pretends it was the media who did her wrong, but it was her f*** boyfriend who humiliated her!
EXACTLY.
It was her boyfriend who brought to the WORLD’s attention about his beater ways. Toward her.
Why isn’t THIS the liberation she is talking about, which I don’t get at all from her interview-
Rather, she has this weird slant toward the media, and (now I am totally inferring)her liberation is about being away from the media (?) and not her beater boyfriend?
Preach it Birdie! so true!
ASSton was probably pissed she was photographed because he’s worried about he’s side pieces finding out about eachother.
ha ha, how sad is it to get dumped by him-she was scraping the bottom of the barrel on that one..
Definitely. He was, however, a few steps above beat-her-down Brown.
Yeah, but just a few 😉
Correctamundo! Must suck to be a famous cheater. More paranoid than a crackhead.
SO true! And when you beat out the crackheads in the paranoia contest, it’s time to break out the prescription meds….
She’s beautiful, but also a head case with daddy issues.
I agree and she will not be able to move beyond Chris Brown.
Little miss sunshine no more
Kaiser…good write up. I don’t know if your questions, ‘What truth? What opening?’ are rhetorical in nature, but I’ll take a stab…hehehe!
Her “bring it” moment was when the “Rihanna Slutfest” began. That’s what “her truth” was. Yeah, I know it’s a bit funny, as I’m laughing myself, but the reality is, is that Riri’s “slutfest,” began shortly after she got her legs back after things began settling down after her altercation w/Chris B.
So, I guess she became rebellious(?) after such, and the slutfest is her “bring it” moment…that’s all I can think. Like you, Kaiser, I’m kinda scratching my head on this one, as well.
But she said in an interview that her slutty behavior on stage has nothing to do with her own personality!? I can’t quote her but I’m pretty sure she said something like this because I thought, well, why are you then selling records with sex?
Completely off topic but I loathe her large mannish hands. And she needs to quite the stick-on nails cause all they do is draw my eye to those monstrosities. Otherwise, shes cute.
Oy. I think she has a very strange definition of liberation, whether she means from the secret or as a person in general. It’s like she’s verbally twisting herself into a pretzel trying to answer this question in a way that sounds even remotely feminist (and this is what she’s trying to do, right? I’m not even sure). It’s not. She has no idea why people are upset and she doesn’t seem to care what kind of example she is to girls. Well, good for her …. I guess? Not such a good sign for the state of this business and society as a whole.
I’m kind of getting tired of seeing her everywhere.
on average it takes a woman 8 or 9 attempts before she severs a relationship with an abuser. Just because she’s famous doesn’t mean that she’s got some superhuman strength that other women don’t have.
I can understand the criticism about the way she’s talking about it though. The problem is that she is dumb in the way that 20 somethings are dumb. But when trying to justify the unjustifiable what can you really say?
Not all 20 somethings are dumb. Just the ones full of themselves like she is.
No doubt. At 20, I was a single mother who had ESCAPED my abuser (and baby’s father); sharing an apartment with another single mother; WALKING to college; and generally trying to get my life back on track after over 3 years of abuse.
And the truth is that the majority of 20 somethings fit that “full of themselves” category. I know there are a lot of 20 somethings who are more mature than that…but they are the exception.
Good for you bellaluna – you have my great respect.
In regards to the quote about bringing it…it almost sounds as if she’s talking about the fallout from her re-kindled relationship with Brown?
I have been in a similar situation as her, so I can totally relate.
What I like about Rhianna is that she is exactly who she says she is, and makes no apologies. In this sense, she reminds me a lot of Madonna.
Anybody else get a Tina Turner vibe from the hair and wardrobe?
Yes, I was thinking the same thing!
Unfortunately, she has neither Tina Turner’s talent, nor her awareness, self-respect, or balls to leave the horrible person behind who almost killed her.
I agree! I just think the styling is interesting.
wasn’t tina with ike for more than 20 years ????
I used to be a fan of hers but the last couple of years she has lost my respect.
She is beautiful. There is no doubt about that. She isn’t a great singer. That is the truth too. But there was something really likeable about her before the Chris Brown incident.
She was even ok shortly after that and since then she’s been out to prove to us what a tough bitch she is. I don’t buy it for a second and I think she’s an idiot. She rebounded by making a fairly decent album (Rated R) and then BAM she was trashy, slutty and annoying. Not too sure what happened there but I don’t think she is truly I am tough woman hear me roar at all. She’s a little girl who is F-ed up.
Her secret that came out was that she had herpes. All of Chris Brown’s friends came out of the wood work saying things like, “If a Ho gave you herpes you wouldn’t smack the bitch down?!”
Ashton didn’t want ppl to know he was sexing someone with herpes (guess he has it too).
Really? This is the first time I’ve heard about all this….interesting.
Google it, alot of it came from Bossip as well as Tila Tequila…haha!
@Jess…ah yes…Bossip. The gold standard of accurate information. LOL and SMH.
I really can’t stand this chick.
Me either!
Me three-ther!
WOW. Its a sad state of affairs in Rihanna’s psyche. She is one screwed up chick.
Where is Tina Turner when you need her?
For real! Yeah, Tina could teach this twat a thing or two, that’s for sure.
Now Tina Turner? I’ve got NOTHING BUT RESPECT for her! @JM, you hit the nail on the head!
it’s very possible that in 5 yrs or 10 yrs she will look at all of it differently….in retrospect.
cut her a little break, she’s young.
thats if she not in the morgue after being beaten to death by her partner.
Is Rihanna the only woman of color this site posts about??? Love her but tired of seeing her…how about a story on Gabrielle Union? shes beautiful and doing amazing things.
I am interested in what amazing things Gabrielle is up to? All I have read about her over the last few years consists of her dating a string of married men….
I don’t know, it sorta sounds like spin to me, like how is this girl suppossed to really frame what happened, other than to make it sound like a positive. I think she has people who help her articulate the situation in a way that makes her end up sounding empowered by it, but I think it’s bs.
I agree. I think she is saying what she’s been told to say. If you listen to her audio/tv interviews, she seems dumb as a box of rocks. In written interviews she seems more focused and articulate (tho what she says still doesn’t make sense.)
This will end one way or another – she will come to her senses Tina Turner style, or he will beat her up again and it makes her realize what’s up and makes her leave.
Or he’ll kill her.
Three ways.
(spanish inquisition)
Ha! Great Monty Python reference!
Nope. I’m done with her. She had all the time and money in the world to get her sh*t together and instead took her clothes off, had midgets doing lap dances on her, told the media she would only date guys with big schlongs and then made a song about how she needs BDSM in her life to feel womanly. Just no. She’s too disturbing for me.
Ugh, such a hypocrite. I still like her music enough to use it for the gym, but I’ve stopped caring about all that other crazy stuff happening in her personal life.
No, a woman would have a moment of “liberation” and “bring it” in this situation only if she completely separated herself from this piece of crap indefinitely. She is obviously delusional; no wonder she’s hanging out with that a-hole again. Well, good for her. Good luck with that! Don’t expect any more sympathy when he beats you again.
Honestly, I don’t think they ever broke up. Her PR team was just doing damage control to save her career. It’s very hard for battered women to leave because they always find a way to justify the guy’s behavior. The cycle is hard to break. My complaint is how the media glamourizes abuse against women. It’s fucking disgusting. It took my friend 8 years to get out of her violent relationship. She finally did after her man put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. Rihanna has a lot of growing up to do.
Unusually the “role model” talk irritates me, but in this instance, she IS a terrible role model for women and men regarding domestic violence.
Everything she says is classic domestic violence victim talk. She didn’t get empowered by that incident, she just got mad that everyone found out that she was in a d.m. relationship. He purposely humiliated her in front of her co-workers that night bc that’s one of their favorite methods. She needs counseling. When she voluntarily wants no more contact with him, then she’ll believable.
Regarding the Jay-Z crack dealer comments: this is a fantastic documentary about crack and its impact on America through the eyes of the hip-hop community: Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation. I strongly recommend it-I’ve watched it twice at this point!
This girl is awful. She is the WORST possible role model for girls and young women. She advocates violence, is trashy, smokes pot. Judging by her antics she advocates bulling and disrespect to those whom she doesn’t agree with. She is doing nothing but sending the wrong message. Please paps quit taking her picture and writing about her. She needs to go the way of Paris Hilton….or just away.
Oh, blah blah, liberation. Almost everything can be liberating these days.
She got all the attention and love of the world after her assault b/c she was the darling of the moment with her ‘umbrella’ song. It was sympathy for all the women who have been thru that and hate to all the men who do that. And she doesn’t want to be the poster child for abuse anymore. I get that. But she has huge issues she doesn’t know about; they are like shadows, hanging around, easy for others to see. She better start looking at them cuz I personally don’t want her to be the next Whitney Houston. Too SAD!!
Is she paler? Is she bleaching her skin or is it photoshop?