Skip to main content
REVELATION

Singer Duffy Says She Was Raped, Drugged, Held Captive

“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.”

200225-leon-duffy-tease-2_dqbrk0

Getty

By Laura Bradley

Duffy, the Welsh singer whose album Rockferry won the Grammy award for best pop vocal album in 2008, has been missing from the public eye for nearly a decade. In 2011 she decided to take a break after releasing her most recent album, 2010’s Endlessly. On Tuesday, she returned to Instagram to reveal a horrific experience: She says she was drugged, raped, and held captive.

“You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this,” the post reads. “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.” According to TMZ, this is Duffy’s first post to the platform since 2017.

View this post on Instagram

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.

A post shared by @ duffy on

Duffy said she spoke with a journalist last summer, and that an interview is forthcoming. “He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak,” she wrote. She does not mention when the incident occurred, but says it took place “over some days.”

“The recovery took time,” Duffy wrote. “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.”

After closing her note, she added, “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.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE
Laura Bradley
Laura BradleySenior Entertainment Reporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

TRENDING NOW