Singer Duffy shares Instagram post detailing the assault that halted her career

Duffy had had a massively successful debut album, but then seemed to disappear from public life.

Duffy has posted a statement on Instagram detailing the reasons she paused her career in showbusiness.

The singer, whose real name is Aimee Anne Duffy, released her debut album in 2008 to mass critical and public acclaim, winning a Grammy, three Brit Awards, and earning her the best-selling album in the UK that year. A second album followed in 2010, which was much less commercially successful, and Duffy then announced an extended hiatus from making music.

Last night, she shared a lengthy post on Instagram sharing the reasons for her departure from the industry. Duffy said that she was “raped and drugged and held captive over some days” and that the “recovery took time”. Duffy shared that she had been contacted by a journalist to share her story last year, and that she will be sharing the interview “in the coming weeks”.

The post does not reveal the date or details of Duffy’s assault, but does share the singer’s feelings towards revealing her story, and the struggle she has been through since the assault. She said that she did not want to continue singing as she did not “want to show the world the sadness in my eyes”. Duffy did share that she has been through a period of recovery since the assault, and said: “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.”

Read the caption in full below:

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.

Featured image via Instagram

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