Grammy-winning singer Duffy revealed in a social media blog post (this February) the heartbreaking reason behind her decade-long absence from the music, she is now further detailing the distressing ordeal that crashed her career and even life.
In the post that was emotional and a little lengthy, the Welsh “Mercy” singer explained in detail about her previous social media post from February this year. In February’s post, she revealed that she was drugged, raped, and was also held as a captive for some days. Since the incident, she stayed away from the limelight and focussed on her recovery from the attack.
Duffy did not reveal any detail about the accused and the year of the incident neither in her previous post nor the latest one that was posted on Sunday. She is the latest post provided more details about her healing process and the incident.
Duffy wrote, “that was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant and also I was drugged for four weeks and was taken to a foreign country. I don’t remember getting on a plane and coming round of a traveling vehicle.” She also wrote, “I was then taken to a hotel, where the kidnapper raped me and even made indirect confessions of wanting to kill me.”
She further wrote, “I could have been disposed of by that kidnapper but beheld running away to a city or town nearby, as he was asleep, but I didn’t have any cash and was frightened that he would call the police on me. I still don’t get it how I had the strength to survive those days.”
At last, Duffy was able to escape. After her escape, “someone I knew visited me on my balcony and saw me staring into space. But, still, I can’t remember how I got back home,” she wrote.
The singer wrote that she was too frightened to report the crime. “I thought it was not safe to report the police as if something goes wrong, I would have been dead by now as the kidnapper would have killed me at that instant. I thought being all over the news and risk being mishandled during that time would put me in more danger. So, I followed my instincts at that time to escape.”
In her post, Duffy wrote that she told two female police officers about different threatening incidents in the last decade and her report is on record and the ID of the rapist should only be handled by the police.
Duffy wrote that, in the ensuing years after the kidnap, she even wanted to change her name legally and move to a different country to start a new life leaving the past behind and become a florist or something.
Slowly she began to heal with the help of a psychologist without whom she says that, “I may not have made it.” She even moved five times in the immediate three years after the assault, and she wrote: “I now feel safe in my present residence.”
As her answer to why she chose her story now, Duffy said she felt going public may help other people who go through similar situations. “Rape stripped me of human rights, only to experience life with autonomy from fear. The incident already stole one-third of my life, and deep down I know it would have been a shame and did such massive disservice to my existence only to delete myself and forget what had happened and what I had experienced in music publicly.”
Name and Fame to Duffy
Duffy rose to stardom with her debut album “Rockferry” in 2008. The album made it to the U.K. album charts at No.1 and also became the best-selling album of the year 2008 in the country. More than 7 million copies were sold worldwide and even won the “Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.” Since 1983, her single “Mercy” made her the first Welsh woman to grab No.1 position on the U.K. singles chart.
Rockferry was followed by 2010s Endlessly before she took an extended break from music due to the incident. But as she was absent for over a decade, fans wondered if her decade-long pause had turned into an exit from the industry for the lifetime.
Duffy wrote in her essay (which could indicate her possible return), “When I sing, I feel like a bird. But it is not what this is about. I’m doing this to get freed, for all of me to get freed. What follows has to be seen.”
She also added, “I know at least this much, I owe it to me to release a body of work someday, though I doubt I will ever be the same person all the people once knew.”
At the end of the essay, she said, “I can now leave this decade behind. Where the horrifying past belongs. I hope no more ‘what happened to Duffy questions will be popped,’ as now you know and now I am free from the terrible past.”
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