O1. Rihanna Comes Clean

By Rolling Ston
April 4, 2012 11:15 AM ET
Rihanna has opened up to Elle about her fans' response to her reconnecting with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown despite his conviction for assaulting her back in 2009. "It's very hard for me to accept, but I get it," she told the fashion magazine. "People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that's all right. I don't hate them for it." She says she is unwilling to apologize for her decision because "tomorrow I'm still going to be the same person. I'm still going to do what I want to do." The singer says her experience following Brown's attack before the Grammys three years ago was essential to making her the woman she is today. "It gave me guns," she says of the incident. "I was like, well, ****. They know more about me than I want them to know. It's embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of 'bring it.' I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad; I just want them to know the truth. "I have more freedom the more people know about me," says Rihanna. "It's like, one less skeleton in the closet, one less burden, one less secret; now you know that, so you can say what you want about it. I don't have anything to hide.
I honestly give Rihanna a lot of credit for being so careless about what other people think, at the end of the day everyone needs to do whatever that makes them happy. Yeah, she may look really stupid for staying with someone that has hit her, I personally never would. But, it’s important to do what makes you happy, it’s her decision and people should respect it. My opinion on this topic is really in between, it can go both ways. One way, I think she looks ridiculous for going back with him after what he did but no one knows their relationships besides them, and I guess people can change. Another way I see it is, everyone makes mistakes… Some are bigger than others but you have to get through them in order to move forward with their life, which it seems like Chris Brown is doing. I give them both a lot of credit for dealing with the rumors and opinions that are coming their way, I wish them the best.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rihanna-i-wont-apologize-for-reconnecting-with-chris-brown-20120404