Got A Tip?

Star Seeker

Duffy

Duffy Details Rape & Kidnapping In Powerful Personal Essay: 'A Violence That Nearly Killed Me'

duffy opens up about rape in moving personal essay

Back in February, Duffy came forward to reveal her time out of the spotlight was because she had previously been raped and held captive.

Now, over a month later, the Welsh-born singer has opened up with more details in a lengthy first-person account, adding why she finally chose to share her story.

Related: Nicki Minaj’s Husband FINALLY Registers As A Sex Offender

Duffy — born Aimee Anne Duffy — detailed the traumatic incident on her new website, where she wrote:

“It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and traveled to a foreign country. I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a traveling vehicle. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me.”

The Mercy songstress explained she feared for her life because her captor “made veiled confessions of wanting to kill” her. And it was during this time, she was then flown back to the UK where she was kept drugged in her own home for four weeks:

“Thereafter, it didn’t feel safe to go to the police. I felt if anything went wrong, I would be dead, and he would have killed me. I could not risk being mishandled or it being all over the news during my danger. I really had to follow what instincts I had. I have told two female police officers, during different threatening incidents in the past decade, it is on record.”

Not only did the experience change who she is, but it affected the relationships with those around her:

“The toll of me hiding, this last decade, also meant I was estranged from all. What happened was not only a betrayal to me, to my life, a violence that nearly killed me, it stole a lot from other people too. I was just not the same person for so long.”

At times, the 35-year-old even considered making the decision to “change my name off public record and disappear to another country.” However, the Brit Award winner ultimately decided against it:

“Rape stripped me of my human rights, to experience a life with autonomy from fear. It has already stolen one-third of my life. Deep down I do know it would have been a shame and done such an immense disservice to my existence to just delete myself and forget what I had experienced in music publicly.”

Today, she is “no longer ashamed” about this chapter of her life:

“I am sharing this because we are living in a hurting world and I am no longer ashamed that something deeply hurt me, anymore. I believe that if you speak from the heart within you, the heart within others will answer. As dark as my story is, I do speak from my heart, for my life, and for the life of others, whom have suffered the same.”

Given the ongoing global crisis surrounding COVID-19, the performer also assured readers she’s familiar with the many feelings that come with self-isolation:

“Ostracization and isolation is known to be a form of torture. If anyone would have told me I would share my times of isolation, with a nation isolated, I would never have believed them. What I can share though, at this time, during this shared experience is the science. The brain’s ‘dorsal anterior cingulate cortex,’ which registers physical pain, is activated when we are isolated.”

In case you missed it, the Grammy Award nominee released her first new song in five years, Something Beautiful, to uplift spirits amid the pandemic. She continued:

“Knowing the mind’s science enables you to manage it. And isolation is a small price to pay for saving lives, therefore we must be strong in the face of it. This demands us all, as one, to act for each other; never has mindfulness been so vital as it is now.”

Read her full story HERE. Thank you for being so brave and sharing your story with us, Duffy.

[Image via Daniel Deme/WENN.]

Related Posts

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT
Apr 06, 2020 07:59am PDT

Share This