Lifestyle Celebrity

Duffy's secret rape horror

Voice Entertainment Reporter|Published

RECOVERY: Duffy reveals rape ordeal. Picture: Joel Ryan/AP. RECOVERY: Duffy reveals rape ordeal. Picture: Joel Ryan/AP.

Ten years ago, she was top of the charts and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

Then singer Duffy just vanished, never to be heard of again.

Until this week, when the Welsh star revealed her life and career was ruined after she was “raped and drugged and held captive”.

The 35-year-old, whose full name is Aimee Ann Duffy, shared an emotional Instagram post to tell fans why she stepped back from making music in 2011.

The Mercy hitmaker wrote of her harrowing ordeal: “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.”

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You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter. Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it. Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. 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 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. 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. In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken interview, if I can. 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 x Duffy 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.

A post shared by @ duffy on Feb 25, 2020 at 10:12am PST

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 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 love and 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.”

%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/WatchThis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WatchThis: Pop star Duffy revealed this week that she was ‘raped and drugged and held captive over some days,’ leading to her years-long hiatus from the spotlight https://t.co/oOWYBl1wjX pic.twitter.com/UjojZmvha1 #RT

— WatchThis® (@WatchThisVidz)

After showing her appreciation the singer ended her post by asking for respect 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.”

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