By Cindy Clark, USA TODAY
Rihanna is speaking out about the night she was attacked by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown - the night, she says, she "lost my best friend."
In a tearful conversation with Oprah, the R&B singer recounts the aftermath of Feb. 8, 2009, when she and Brown got into an argument while driving home from a pre-Grammy party. Brown was arrested for assault and pleaded guilty. "Everything I knew switched in a night, and I couldn't control that," says Rihanna in a clip of the interview, which airs on Oprah's Next Chapter on Sunday (9 p.m. ET/PT, OWN).
Facing the facts was difficult, especially since she and Brown are constantly in the public eye, she says. "It's not easy to interpret on camera, not with the world watching. ...it became a circus."
"It was a weird, confusing space to be in because as angry as I was - angry, hurt and betrayed - I just felt like he made that mistake because he needed help, and who's going to help him?" she says. "Nobody's going to say he needs help - everybody's going to say he's a monster, without looking at the source ...and I was more concerned about him."
USA TODAY