Pop star Duffy: I was drugged, raped and held captive for days
IN an extraordinary online post, singer Duffy last night told how she was ‘raped and drugged and held captive’.
Explaining that the harrowing ordeal was behind her lengthy absence from public life, the Welsh star asked for support after speaking out about the sexual violence she suffered.
Duffy, 35, whose full name is Aimee Ann Duffy, released an emotional Instagram post to tell her fans why she stepped back from making music. Her last album, Endlessly, was released in 2010.
She wrote: ‘You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter.’ She added: ‘Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time... I cannot explain it.’
The singer, who is best-known for her 2008 hit Mercy, wrote in the post: ‘A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak.’
The triple Brit Award winner added: ‘The truth is, and please trust me I am OK and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it.
‘But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.’
She told how the attack was behind her disappearance from the public eye. The singer, from Bangor, north Wales, announced in February 2011 that she was taking a long break from music.
Explaining the long hiatus, she wrote: ‘You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.’
Duffy said she will next release an interview in the coming weeks, in which she will open up about the sexual assault she suffered and said she would like to answer some questions, ‘if I can’.
Thanking her fans for their support, she wrote: ‘I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends. I want to thank you for that.’
The singer ended her post by asking for support as she steps back into public life, adding: ‘Please respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family. Please support me to make this a positive experience.’