While many thought that Welsh singer, Duffy, best known for her 2008 album Rockferry and her single, "Mercy", was laying low to avoid superstardom for the last decade, she recently took to Instagram to reveal that she had actually been drugged, raped, and kidnapped.
She recently spoke out to share an update, recalling her 4-week-long kidnapping and the harrowing details.
TW: This article contains depictions or discussions of rape and sexual assault and may be triggering to some readers.
"The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days," she wrote in the since-deleted post.
"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 continued.
"I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke."
Since deleting her original post, she shared a follow-up one, admitting that she was having a hard time talking about her experience.
"Tried to follow up with a spoken interview, but it’s harder than I thought, I will follow up in writing soon."
“It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country,” she wrote.
"I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me. I remember the pain and trying to stay conscious in the room after it happened."
"I could have been disposed of by him. I contemplated running away to the neighbouring city or town, as he slept, but had no cash".
“I do not know how I had the strength to endure those days, I did feel the presence of something that helped me stay alive."
"The perpetrator drugged me in my own home in the four weeks".
“After it happened, someone I knew came to my house and saw me on my balcony staring into space, wrapped in a blanket. I cannot remember getting home."
"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 don’t know what’s next for me. I would like to experience me being who I really am, for the first time, privately."
“I can now leave this decade behind," she added.
You can read Duffy's entire written statement here on her website.
