Welsh singer Duffy opens up on 'dark story' of rape and kidnap ordeal
6 April 2020, 07:57
Duffy has revealed more details about her kidnap and rape ordeal - saying she was drugged at a restaurant and taken to a foreign country.
The singer wrote she wants to tell her 'dark' story to help others who've been through similar experiences.
In a long post linked to by her verified Instagram account, she said she was held captive for four weeks before managing to escape.
She revealed she had previously explored human rights laws to change her name to enable her to "disappear to another country and maybe become a florist or something, so that I could put the past behind with a new life and not trouble anyone else with it, to carry it alone."
She revealed her worries over returning to the world of music due to the "risk of constantly facing the question of “what happened”, “where did you disappear to”, “why did you vanish”, “what have you been up to for so many years”."
Duffy told her supporters: "I hope it comforts you to feel less ashamed if you feel alone."
The 35-year-old singer and songwriter, whose real name is Aimee Anne Duffy, had largely disappeared from the public eye following the release of two award-winning albums.
But in February she said she needed time to heal after she was drugged, held captive and raped for days.
In her most recent message to fans, she revealed details of her ordeal. She said: "It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country.
"I can't remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a travelling vehicle.
"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"I was stuck with him for another day, he didn't look at me, I was to walk behind him, I was somewhat conscious and withdrawn.
"I could have been disposed of by him."
She added that she does not know how she had "the strength to endure those days", and claimed the perpetrator made "veiled confessions of wanting to kill me".
Duffy said she was sharing her ordeal because "we are living in a hurting world".
She added: "I am no longer ashamed that something deeply hurt me, anymore. I believe that if you speak from the heart within you, the heart within others will answer.
"As dark as my story is, I do speak from my heart, for my life, and for the life of others, whom have suffered the same."
Duffy said that she escaped by "fleeing", but did not provide an account of how she got away, adding she "cannot remember getting home".
She said that she initially feared going to the police, but eventually told a female officer what happened after someone threatened to "out her story".
Duffy added that she was at "high risk of suicide" following the ordeal and has spent "almost 10 years completely alone".
But she said she now feels she can "leave this decade behind" and is now "free", thanking her psychologist for helping her through the trauma.
She said she hopes to release "a body of work some day", but added: "I very much doubt I will ever be the person people once knew."
When Duffy broke her silence about the incident she said many of her fans would "wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why".
Her last album, Endlessly, came out in 2010.
