Rihanna - Rihanna 'Lost Her Best Friend' After Chris Brown Attack

Openly sobbing on camera, Rihanna said she immediately felt protective of Brown and worried that he would be demonized. "It was embarrassing, it was humiliating", Rihanna told Winfrey", adding, "I lost my best friend. Everything I knew switched, switched in a night, and I couldn't control that.As angry as I was - as angry and hurt and betrayed - I just felt like he made that mistake because he needed help. And who's going to help him?". At the time, the media labelled Brown as a "monster", and public opinion of him has never really reached its previous heights. An unusually teary-eyed Rihanna added, "Nobody's going to say he needs help. Everybody's going to say he's a monster, without looking at the source. And I was more concerned about him". Afterwards, Winfrey admitted that she had expected a defiant Rihanna, adding, "I thought she was going to be kind of a badass, kind of a hard-edged rocker, pop woman. Nothing could have been further from the truth".

Since the assault, the 'Umbrella' singer has risen to become one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, and Rihanna and Chris Brown reunited earlier this year for two collaborations including 'Birthday Cake'. There were even rumors that Rihanna and Chris Brown were back together, though that seems a little premature.