Rihanna is speaking out about the nude pictures of her that were leaked shortly after the February confrontation with
Chris Brown that left her battered and emotionally distraught.
While promoting her album,
Rated R, in an interview with New York City radio station
Hot 97, the singer admitted she was the woman in the naked photos, which were leaked earlier this year.
"They were for my boyfriend at the time," Rihanna, 21, said, adding, "if you don't send your boyfriend naked pictures, then I feel bad for him."
But discovering nude photographs of herself on the Internet – just weeks after a photo of her battered face also found its way online, allegedly having been leaked by the police department – the singer said, "trust me, I was [freaked out].
"It was the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to me. I just felt like my whole privacy was taken before that [with the other photo leak] and then, when that came out, I thought, 'Oh great, so now there's nothing they don't know about me and my private life,' " she said. "It was humiliating and it was embarrassing – especially my mom having to see that."
Nervous about her mother's reaction to the second photo scandal, Rihanna sent flowers before calling to break the news, just two days before Mother's Day. "I was nervous [but] when the world is against me she's always there supporting," said the singer.
Saving Lives
As for the mixed reaction Rihanna says she got when she finally began
speaking out about her fight with Brown, 20, "It tripped me up. [People] think I have an agenda to destroy his career but that's not what it's about."
Instead, she says, she wants to help other young women who might also be the victims of domestic abuse. "I was very hesitant to ever talk about it … but there are young girls out there that need to hear this," she said. "Say what you want but we're saving lives here."
And Rihanna adds that the experience has taught her how to avoid such problems down the road.
"My whole relationship with him was a learning experience. There was a lot of insecurity and a lot of control issues," she said. "In relationships in the future I know how to watch out for certain things. A lot of those were signs. I learned that in the end."