Chris Brown has spoken out about the night he assaulted ex-girlfriend Rihanna in a new documentary called Chris Brown: Welcome to my Life.
Speaking about the incident, which happened back in 2009, the 28-year-old rapper described how things took a turn for the worse after Chris admitted having a fling with a woman who used to work for him.
Rihanna and Chris were at a pre-Grammy party when the woman turned up, which led to arguments in the car on the way home. Things escalated when Rihanna saw a text from the woman on his phone.
Chris recalled: "She starts going off, she throws the phone, 'I hate you!', whatever, whatever, she starts hitting me, we're in a little Lamborghini, you know she's fighting me. Like I remember she tried to kick me, just like her beating shit, but then I really hit her.
"With a closed fist, like I punched her, and it busted her lip, and when I saw it I was in shock, I was 'f***, why did I hit her like that'?
"So from there she's spitting blood in my face, it raised me even more. It's a real fight in the car, and we driving in the street.”
Chris went on to describe how Rihanna tried to grab his phone off him while he was driving, so he pulled over. Then, he said: “"She takes the keys out of the car... and fakes it like she throws them out of the window.
"I get out the car and I'm looking for the keys and somebody yelled and she yells out her door, 'Help, he’s trying to kill me.'"
That night, following the incident, Chris was arrested. He was later charged with felony assault and making criminal threats, and sentenced to community labour, five years of probation and domestic violence counselling.
Chris said their relationship had been tumultuous prior to the night of the assault: “We would fight each other. She would hit me, I would hit her and it never was OK.”
Looking back on what happened, Chris said: “I look back at that picture and I’m like that’s not me, bro, that’s not me. I hate it to this day. That’s going to haunt me forever.”
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