Rihanna’s full interview on “Oprah’s Next Chapter” aired last night and, as promised in the preview clip, there was much talk of Rihanna’s thoughts on Chris Brown, which are generally conflicted, and you can tell that she hasn’t fully resolved her feelings over what took place three years ago when he beat the living crap out of her. In addition, we’ve also heard that Chris was very aghast that Rihanna (and the rest of the world) is still rehashing the events that took place because he feels like he’s worked so hard (in the studio, not in women’s shelters) on his “road to recovery.” Whatever.
Before the full interview aired, Rihanna has also come under fire from some charities that deal with violence against women because RiRi stated (in the aforementioned clip) that she “misses” Chris and that he only “made a mistake” and “needed help.” The Women’s Resource Centre has released a statement saying “We need to stop society allowing us to normalise such behaviour. Rihanna has admitted she ‘was more concerned about’ her ‘best friend’ Chris Brown after the singer’s vicious attack on her.” Now with the release of Oprah’s full program, Rihanna has fully admitted that she still loves Chris and has fully forgiven him. She also hints at some (unsurprising) dynamics that she witnessed between her own mother and father:
* Rihanna and Brown, according to Rihanna, are “not seeing each other.” But the two have been “working on our friendship again, and now we’re very, very close friends. We built up a trust again. And that’s it. We love each other and we probably always will.”
* The Battleship star acknowledged that Brown is in a relationship and that she is single. But she also admitted that, as rumored, they recently reunited in St. Tropez. “It’s awkward because I still love him,” she said of seeing Brown again. “My stomach drops, and I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me.”
* When Winfrey asked if Brown was a true love her for her, Rihanna responded, “Absolutely. I think that he was the love of my life. He was my first love and I see that he loved me the same way.”
* Rihanna said she was “angry” and “resentful” for a long time before she ultimately forgave Brown for hitting her. She said she was able to grant that forgiveness after she resolved issues with her own father, who she implied was occasionally violent with her mother.
[From Washington Post]
Beyond the troublesome attitude that Rihanna harbors for her abuser, I find it rather disgusting that Rihanna is essentially making a huge public play for Chris by admitting that she still loves him and had such a hard time when hanging with him in St. Tropez while his girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, was also present. I just don’t understand why she’d do that in a normal, non-abusive situation, let alone when Rihanna’s relationship with Chris was clearly a toxic mess. But maybe she’s just addicted, I don’t know.
Screencaps courtesy of OWN Network
Could she be any more of a poster child for “VICTIM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE”?!?!?
I’m sure we just don’t understand him.
I KNOW. Ew,ew,ew,ew,ewwww.
Rihanna obviously has issues and she’s occasionally done some pretty non-classy stuff, but she’s never, oh I don’t know, beaten and bit someone to a bloody pulp and threatened to KILL them. Girlfriend, you deserve so much better than this violent, buck-toothed idiot.
Good grief.
(Just to clarify, all the “ew” stuff above was expressing my feelings about Chris Brown and the fact of people, including the woman he tried to choke to death, making excuses for him — not my feelings about victims of domestic violence, who I certainly don’t think should feel like their problems are embarrassing and ought to be kept out of sight.)
This really, really gets to me. Now, whenever someone mentions how much of a PoS Brown is, the immediate comeback from lunatic stans will be “But Rihanna forgave him! So why do you care, it didn’t even happen to you!”
*Just because someone forgives another does not make them a good person or excuse them from what they did*
Not all of us can forgive someone who has beaten the shit out of us, and I hardly think the poster girl for daddy issues is the upstanding authority on cracking down on domestic violence.
ITA. Her behavior is a classic case of battered women’s syndrome. She minimizes the abuse, talks glowingly about her (former) abuser and “forgives” him. HE HASN’T CHANGED ONE GOD DAMNED BIT! When will she see this? I would find her behavior disgusting except that it clearly stems from her own violent childhood and the unresolved pain that she has from that. I hate this. I came onto Celebitchy to make fun of famous people with bad hair and clothing choices, not to lament how many women are still trapped in the cycle of abuse.
I can’t watch or listen to this girl anymore. Not even her music. She is such a mess and it’s bordering on ‘sad smut’ for me.
She is right about one thing though she is no role model for anyone. I hope she gets her sh*t together someday soon. Till then consider me not a fan!
I think she clearly needs help and some therapy, because she is going through the emotional confusion that happens to MANY victims of abuse. They don’t just abuse your body, they abuse your mind as well.
I don’t think people should judge her or stop being her fans, because she really needs help. I can see not wanting to enable it, but keep in mind, she is still a victim. I sincerely hope that Oprah gave her some harsh truth and the number of a therapist when the cameras stopped.
Totally this. It saddens me that Rhianna doesn’t have a solid female role model anywhere in her life to help her get her life back together. And that she isn’t able to recognise what she needs to do to help herself.
Oprah is too desperate to realize that Rho Rho used her to clear the way so she can get back with that guy.
Yep, that’s what Rihanna was doing, but I get the feeling that Ophra understood it and just didn’t care one bit.
Losing fame and success is a bitch, ain’t it?
In the top photo, R leans her head like a child to a parent, while O grits her teeth as if to say, if only I can get through this, it will make me headlines again…
Ope said it shocked her. I think she just was in the position of having Rihanna talk and not interrupt her. I agree she is planning to get back with him unfortunately.
One thing that I found unusual – her mom looks part asian. Seems even more rude teasing Karruche Tran about being a rice cake.
Correction, he didn’t ‘hit’ her. He BEAT her relentlessy and almost choked her to DEATH. Huge difference.
OWN is not doing well. O will get anyone to get more rating. I’ll bet she’ll get Aniston next to talk about her engagement & whatever.
….
……..
………….
GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! *bangs head repeatedly against the wall*
iCan’t, iCan’t, iBloodyCan’t ANYMORE!
Almost exactly what I was going to say…I can’t with this bitch anymore.
Oh, and not long ago I posted right here on Celebitchy that the only reason that would stop her from going back to him was if *HE* didn’t want her back.
Apparently I was right.
Poor thing. It takes YEARS of therapy and extremely hard personal work to get over the need to be in abusive relationships and situations that one witnessed or experienced, especially if they happened as a child.
She seriously needs to get professional help, for her own good.
Exactly. It’s frustrating but I can’t muster any real anger toward her. She’s such a little Pisces. And absolutely still a victim of all this. I was verbally and emotionally abused really badly by my ex, and I’m not an idiot, but it’s still hard to let go of him. I’m a bit better at seeing that I didn’t deserve any of that than she is apparently, though. It’s sad.
call me old-fashioned, but i came up in a purer, more simpler time.
i’m from the school of ‘you-mangle-my-face-i-mangle-your-d*ck’. 😡
^^ Hi-fives RHO ^^
Someone needs to put that on a t-shirt. Imagine going on a first date with that..
LOL! That’s awesome, RHONYC 🙂
Yes! This!
thanx 4 the big-up ladies! u guys are sweet.
i mean…what can i say, my proudest mom-moment was when her private-school kindergarten teacher called my job saying my lil’ princess kicked a boy in the gonads. when i asked what did ‘he’ do, she replied “he grabbed her behind”.
i thought that a girl…just like mommy taught ya. anybody touches the privates…destroy their privates. years later i bought her pepperspray for her 13th birthday. the PINK one of course!
😆
Why, why, why?! Why couldn’t you have been my mother? Think of all the knowledge you could have imparted!
I can’t hate on Rihanna she’s obviously really troubled. But Oprah keeps sinking lower and lower.
^^ this.
the poor girl, is all I can feel about this.
Oprah, on the other, should know better. After her years of spouting off about self realization and self reflection and self improvement, this is despicable. I always felt O was a huge phony but laughed about it.
Allowing this horrifies me 🙁
I already lost all respect for Oprah when she hung out with the KUNTdASShians.
it’s pretty obvious she doesn’t have high self-esteem or knows what it’s like to have a man treat her right or being in a healthy relationship. She watched her mother get beat by her drug addicted father when she was little. No one has taught this girl about her self worth or how to be in healthy relationship that getting abused isn’t normal. Her feelings now are very typical of abused victims it’s hard for them to wrap their head around someone hurting them so they try to rationalize it and make up excuses for that person it’s sad.
She’s no different than other victims of physical and mental abuse.Professional help is much needed.
ITA I have an aunt who was shot six times by her husband twenty years ago.They are divorced but still sleep together.Her beat my aunt dozens of times before he shot her.She divorced him but he is still in her life.
She sure loves the attention this has brought her, doesn’t she?
Yup.
I get the whole “poker face”, don’t let on you have feelings game. Been there, done that. However the whole point is you don’t WANT them to know therefore you don’t go on TV and advertise it. Sounds like she wants a way to get back together with him and let him know she’s game.
**barf**
Lifestyles of the Young and Stupid.
She doesn’t understand the difference between forgiveness and being a doormat. If she wants to find peace for herself by forgiving him and moving on, great, but she’s forgetting the moving on part. She needs to stay away from him and keep herself safe, but seems to be determined to get back together with him. It’s disgusting. She has means and fame that most victims don’t, and she’s squandered all her support.
She truly does need professional help.
The girl is obviously in need of serious help!
She is a victim of abuse so why aren’t her friends and family helping her by taking her to a therapist?
+1. People are all for helping abused women and not judging them, until they’re actually faced with one. This girl obviously needs help. She’s caught in the abuse cycle, and like so many other young women can’t see her abuser for what he is.
Sad all around.
Dealing with someone in an abusive relationship can be extremely frustrating. Im sure friends and family have told her to stay away from him. You can’t hold her down and force her to go to a therapist. Even if she went to one, you can’t make her listen to the advice. She has to actually believe that this guy has not changed, which is obviously not the case. The bottom line is, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want the help.
+2
Because they belong to the same family as does she and they share her psychosis. The only statements you’ve heard from them practically throw her down the isle with him. They’re bloody useless.
Her whole public identity is this, there is nothing else going on in the conversation, just various abuses. Take a nap and fix your life, kid.
There does not appear to be a healthy mentor for Miss Rihanna anywhere on her island. Or at least, in her circle of family and friends. I’m sure she is by far the moneymaker there and nobody is going to say anything to her that might be interpreted as negative, for fear of pissing off the local celebrity. And if she was offered help, she’d turn it down. People like that are very stubborn and do not see the forest for the trees.
Absolutely.
I watched ten minutes of that S%#$ and turned it. She said she just knew she that the world would turn on him and he wouldnt get help.
That fool has had every opportunity since to get help and present himself as changed. And after hearing what she had to say, and knowing that a lot of people are like “she’s only 20,21,22, blah blah blah, she doesnt have to be the poster child”
YES NOW SHE DOES! She talked about not wanting people to see her as weak, so she kept it to herself, she has damned thousands of girls who should be speaking out against their abusers.
She totally owes it to young girls everywhere to have taken a stand against domestic abuse. I was previously disappointed in her, now im sickened by the message she just put out there. Just sick
Publicly pining for her abuser is such a low. I am fortunate enough to not know first hand what it’s like to be in an abusive relationship, but I can’t help but feel it is a crying shame that Rihanna appears to have done nothing to better her self-worth in the period since her abuse. I would have liked to have seen her take some proactive measures to help herself and take responsibility for her own happiness. Instead, she’s pissed away all the goodwill she got from people rooting for her to emerge a stronger, better woman. A great pity.
She grew up with it, and around it. It’s a normal deal to her. She wants to stay in her comfy little box of dysfunction. It’s oh, so much easier.
This! ^^^
I feel empathy for her it took years for her self worth to be damaged living in a abusive home until her mom left her dad.It will take just as long to heal.
You do realize Rihanna is a “toxic mess” too? Chris and Rihanna both need professional help. If those pics were never released this won’t have turned into what it did. There are too many other celebs who have been involved in DV situations and seem to move on with the lives and careers. If I was her I’d stop talking about it. I wouldn’t not want this to be the go to conversation of my career.
If it wasn’t for the leaked photos and news about the incident, I am sure she would have stayed with him. She is still making excuses for him, she never stopped seeing him as the one.
Exactly.
I find it so hard to feel bad for her. She constantly makes herself look even worse when she pities him after everything he did to her. Can’t help someone if they’re unwilling to help themselves.
It makes me sick to know how many girls look up to Rihanna and are listening to her and think this is totally normal and acceptable behavior. I hope these girls have good parents to explain how messed up she is. Shame on Rihanna, Chris AND Oprah.
thats all im saying
Sounds like Rihanna has Stockholm Syndrome:
“Stockholm syndrome can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding, which does not necessarily require a hostage scenario, but which describes “strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, beats, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other.”[4]
Get this girl some help!
Sheesh, Rihanna sure is one self-destructive skank!!
Ugh. I know I should feel sorry for her, but I can’t help my absolute disgust. This girl is pathetic.
No, you jackass, a guy who beats you is not the ‘Love of your Life’. He’s your abuser, and you’re a disgrace to women everywhere.
Oprah should be ashamed of herself too, letting this idiot child voice her views on ‘love’ and not correcting her even though millions of impressionable women will see this drivel.
Chris Brown has never shown actual remorse, besides a forced apology, more violent behavior on tv shows (ripping shirt off and throwing chair through a window), getting mad because he is asked about Rihanna etc etc. I am sure, if she brings it up in like a face to face fight with him, he will beat the crap outta her again. This guy hasn’t changed.
If he had opened up, had been honest and acknowledged his mistake I would have had at least some respect for the guy (oh wait, still not, no). Instead of that he shits on every opportunity to show himself a changed man.
Also his new relationship is odd, he was all over Paris Hilton in some photos while his gf stood right next to him. He has no respect for women or other ppl in general.
I was on Twitter during the show, and the number of CB-fans whining about Rihanna talking about him disgusted me. They were mad because Rihanna opened her mouth about the incident, and felt bad for Chris. I don’t understand what kind of world we live in right now-.-
And I am pretty sure Rihanna is gonna end up in rehab, a mental facility or dead soon. She is a mess.
I think she thought he was the love of her life, that they were soulmates and set monetarily, and in private, they would live happily ever after together. A do-over on her life growing up. Then he threw it all in the trash in one night. I just see her as broken-hearted. You can’t turn on and off what you feel in your heart like a light switch. I also think this interview was her chance to fully explain to him how she feels, without saying it in person and having him chime in. But he is all about HIM and has moved on, his career is on track, and he does not understand what her problem is. They are “friends”, right? I do not know if he was a d*ck to her all along, but probably, and she overlooked it, coming from her background. I hope she never rationalizes going back with him. She really needs counseling to realize her self-worth and that a “normal” guy who treats her nicely is not “suspect”. I do not think a “normal” nice guy would appeal to her at this point. Oprah, on the other hand, reminded me of a snake in this interview. You could almost see her eyes narrow and her forked tongue flicking in and out when she closed for the CB “kill” questions. She has interviewd a lot of very interesting black people, but she gives me a bad feeling. Like she has a shoe-in because she is black, but it is all a hook, for ratings. It’s offensive to me, but maybe I am wrong.
^^^
This. Rihanna is still looking at the little picture in her head about what he could be and not facing the picture of what he is. And she’s too emotionally immature to comprehend and appreciate the importance of publicly vanquishing him. He pushed the daddy buttons and now she’s hopelessly hooked. I bet you she is more upset that he beat her so publicly than she is that he beat her. Had he been discrete she’d never have had to leave him.
This. Unfortunately. How many of Brown’s young fans have either conveniently forgotten about his violence and think “oh if I was with him he’d never do that to me. He’s so hot”.
Domestic violence thrives in secrecy. Don’t let anyone get away with it.
She’s a crazy mess.
That’s *exactly* how I felt about her with her Katherine Jackson interview. I lost so much respect for her after that for these exact reasons…. Including why she gets some of the interviews she’s had.
She needs help and its fairly obvious at this point. Her happiness should not be contingent on his happiness.
On a side not, people in this post are way too judgemental of the victim. This young woman was brutalized to highest d the WHOLE WORLD saw her personal business. That alone would mess with anyone’s psyche for a long period of time.
I wish her well and hope she gets the help she needs,its obvious in her responses she didn’t seek professional help.
+1
People are waaaay to judgemental
I think the term for her/him is FUBAR.
I feel sorry for her. Doesn’t seem like she has a whole lot, if any self worth. I’m not sure she believes she deserves better. She needs extensive therapy and to know that a hit does not equal love. Did her dad used to abuse her, did it happen when she was younger? Somewhere along the way I think she got twisted into thinking that this was acceptable behaviour and people yelling at her will not change her mind, instead I think it will do the opposite. I do see her and CB getting back together and I see the cycle repeating because CB is a lowlife who has no intentions of getting any help himself, because he doesn’t think he has a problem..
Another sad thing about this, is she is now the poster girl for the pick up artist community that says treat a girl like crap and she sees you as alpha…and course all girls want is someone to smack em up side the head and they love you more. Therefore as women we are the cause and the victim in an endless cycle of abuse.
This woman is a moron. Some role model for today’s youth. How many young women are going to think it’s okay to get the crap beaten out of them because this genius thinks it’s okay? If he is what she considers the love of her life, who would she consider to be abusive? Why remain tied to that piece of garbage?
Any woman that thinks it’s okay to be abused is in need of some serious help. No one has the right to hurt you that way. She obviously doesn’t know the meaning of self respect. Neither does Oprah for that matter. She’s really slumming it these days. Kim K and now this. How the mighty have fallen.
Oprah looks so uncomfortable and fake.
It bothers me that Rihanna has not made a point of getting herself any real help… she’s still buggered up in her head where CB is concerned, still very vulnerable to him and other abusers. And it annoys me further that there are actually CB fans out there who fantasize that it was them he beat the sh*t out of… perhaps had RiRi educated herself and spoken up long and loud on the issue, some of those foolish girls would not be romanticizing the incident now.
Rihanna needs help.
Chris needs jail time.
Rihanna talks like Chris new gf doesn’t even exist. Very immature and competitive. Explains all that sex in her image.
Her behavior before the beatdown was highly controlling&jealous. She had no inner confidence at all. She is a product of a violent drug addict. This is classic behavior-all of it. Shame on Oprah!!!
I think I get what she’s saying, honestly. The first time you fall in love feels like no other, regardless of what a pile of crap it may have all been. The bulk of it is in your own head- your own rush of chemicals and dreams and amazement. This reflects nothign on reality. So she is still missing the feeling of being so in love, I’m sure, but she isnt missing being with a horrible, petty, and disgusting bastard like Chris himself. At least thats what I hope.
Oh and further, I NEVER respected her self-selling out act. Way before this news ever hit– I always smell something isn’t clean whenever a (poor) woman is all abotu her sexuality and just overdoing it– she must be missing a few bulbs in teh box, when it comes to her self image and esteem etc.
Sure she is more than her image, but seriously- how can you portray yourself so ridiculously…at least so non-stop… if you had any maturity to you at all…
Yep – totally agree with you. At the core of her being, Rihanna (and every other woman out there who banks on her over-sexualisation/promiscuity) is lost, confused, insecure and not truly loving or respecting herself. Sometimes it takes years to realise that true love is the relationship you have with yourself.
You people commenting before are all judgegenental idiots.