Pop sensation Rihanna is speaking out about the night her then-boyfriend Chris Brown beat her, saying it was "humiliating" and "traumatizing" to admit the assault took place and that it was "wrong" that she went back to Brown afterwards.
"It was a wake-up call. It was a wake-up call for me. Big time," Rihanna told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Diane Sawyer in her first television interview discussing the assault. "I will say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence, don't react off of love. F love. Come out of the situation and look at it in the third person and for what it really is."
The pop star said it was "embarrassing" that Brown was the type of person she fell in love with.
Rihanna on Brown: 'Embarrassing That That's the Type of Person I Fell in Love With'
By LEE FERRAN and LAUREN SHER
Nov. 5, 2009
"So far in love. So unconditional that I went back. It's humiliating to say this happened. To accept that? It's a traumatizing experience," she said.
Her decision to go back to Brown, she said, was a mistake.
"I stayed. I even went back after he beat me, which was wrong," she said. "But again ... I'm a human being and people put me on a very unrealistic pedestal. And all these expectations, I'm not perfect."
The 21-year-old star acknowledged that Brown held her in a headlock twice that night and bit her on the ear and fingers. She told Sawyer that she did not try to fight back.
"I just wanted it to stop. I was not interested in hurting him back," she said.
After months of silence since the February beating, Rihanna decided to speak publicly about the ordeal so she can be a voice to help others who may be in danger of returning to abuse.
"It's completely normal to go back. It's not right. I learned the hard way, but again, this is what I want people to know," she said. "When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible for going back.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Mom of Kevin Miller, 13-year-old boy shot at car wash, begs for witnesses to come forward
BY JAKE PEARSON, MIRELA IVERAC AND WIL CRUZ
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Updated Sunday, October 4th 2009, 11:50 AM
Pace for News
Donna Greaves holds a photo of her 13-year-old Kevin Miller who was shot at the corner of Linden Blvd at Springfield.
H.S. football star wrongly arrested for murder
13-yr.-old killed in Queens shooting
The grieving family of a 13-year-old Queens boy shot to death outside a car wash pleaded for witnesses to come forward as investigators took a suspect into custody, police sources said Sunday.
"Do the right thing!" begged Donna Greaves, whose son, Kevin Miller, was gunned down Friday in Cambria Heights. "And let someone know who's responsible."
Investigators have a 16-year-old "person of interest" at the 105th Precinct in Queens Village who was being questioned and will be part of witness lineup, the police sources said.
The unidentified suspect has not yet been charged with a crime, sources said.
Miller, a freshman at Humanities and the Arts Magnet High School, was shot in the head about 3 p.m. after he and a friend stumbled upon a fight near Campus Magnet High School Linden and Springfield Blvds.
"He was an innocent bystander, in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Greaves, 35, fighting back tears.
Heartbroken relatives quickly gathered at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where Miller was pronounced dead.
"As soon as I saw him, I walked out of the room and cried in my mother's arms," said cousin Steven King, 14, who grew up in the same house with Miller.
Mayor Bloomberg blasted the shooting today and called for stricter gun laws.
"I don't know when we're going just as a society finally say enough is enough," said Bloomberg. "Here's another young kid with a gun and an innocent 13 year old is dead. I mean, what kind of a society do we have?"
A 17-year-old boy who was shot in the leg during the incident remained in stable condition yesterday.
Miller, a junior usher at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Queens who attended a Bible study group, was not the type of kid to get mixed up in a street brawl where bullets might fly, family said.
"He don't know streets. He knows family," said aunt Sharon Griffis, 43.
Miller's mother gave him extra money Friday morning as a reward for good grades and doing his chores, Greaves said. He was going to use the cash to get food at McDonald's with a friend.
As they approached the restaurant, they saw a group of people fighting and the two boys ran away. When the shots rang out, the friend looked back to see Miller on the ground, relatives said.
"I want justice," Greaves said. "I want them to know the type of child they took away."
Miller's loved ones, who affectionately called him "Pretty Boy," steered him away from trouble. They built a basketball court in their backyard where he and Steven played, and Greaves had walked her son to PS/MS 124 in Queens every day.
He started commuting on his own when he started high school. "This is my biggest fear," said Greaves, a supervisor at a medical lab, "him going to high school on his own."
Two days before he was killed, Miller's family got together in Queens and feasted on broccoli, baked potatoes and Buffalo wings. Tomorrow, they will finalize funeral arrangements. "We need to deal with the facts," said Griffis.
"We have to bury a 13-year-old boy whose life just began.
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Updated Sunday, October 4th 2009, 11:50 AM
Pace for News
Donna Greaves holds a photo of her 13-year-old Kevin Miller who was shot at the corner of Linden Blvd at Springfield.
H.S. football star wrongly arrested for murder
13-yr.-old killed in Queens shooting
The grieving family of a 13-year-old Queens boy shot to death outside a car wash pleaded for witnesses to come forward as investigators took a suspect into custody, police sources said Sunday.
"Do the right thing!" begged Donna Greaves, whose son, Kevin Miller, was gunned down Friday in Cambria Heights. "And let someone know who's responsible."
Investigators have a 16-year-old "person of interest" at the 105th Precinct in Queens Village who was being questioned and will be part of witness lineup, the police sources said.
The unidentified suspect has not yet been charged with a crime, sources said.
Miller, a freshman at Humanities and the Arts Magnet High School, was shot in the head about 3 p.m. after he and a friend stumbled upon a fight near Campus Magnet High School Linden and Springfield Blvds.
"He was an innocent bystander, in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Greaves, 35, fighting back tears.
Heartbroken relatives quickly gathered at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where Miller was pronounced dead.
"As soon as I saw him, I walked out of the room and cried in my mother's arms," said cousin Steven King, 14, who grew up in the same house with Miller.
Mayor Bloomberg blasted the shooting today and called for stricter gun laws.
"I don't know when we're going just as a society finally say enough is enough," said Bloomberg. "Here's another young kid with a gun and an innocent 13 year old is dead. I mean, what kind of a society do we have?"
A 17-year-old boy who was shot in the leg during the incident remained in stable condition yesterday.
Miller, a junior usher at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Queens who attended a Bible study group, was not the type of kid to get mixed up in a street brawl where bullets might fly, family said.
"He don't know streets. He knows family," said aunt Sharon Griffis, 43.
Miller's mother gave him extra money Friday morning as a reward for good grades and doing his chores, Greaves said. He was going to use the cash to get food at McDonald's with a friend.
As they approached the restaurant, they saw a group of people fighting and the two boys ran away. When the shots rang out, the friend looked back to see Miller on the ground, relatives said.
"I want justice," Greaves said. "I want them to know the type of child they took away."
Miller's loved ones, who affectionately called him "Pretty Boy," steered him away from trouble. They built a basketball court in their backyard where he and Steven played, and Greaves had walked her son to PS/MS 124 in Queens every day.
He started commuting on his own when he started high school. "This is my biggest fear," said Greaves, a supervisor at a medical lab, "him going to high school on his own."
Two days before he was killed, Miller's family got together in Queens and feasted on broccoli, baked potatoes and Buffalo wings. Tomorrow, they will finalize funeral arrangements. "We need to deal with the facts," said Griffis.
"We have to bury a 13-year-old boy whose life just began.
Friday, October 2, 2009
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