Pop
From Mercy to mystery: Duffy’s untold journey finally revealed in powerful new film
Disney+ has commissioned a new feature‑length documentary giving Duffy unprecedented space to share her life story, from global fame to her years away from the spotlight.
Disney+ has announced a new Hulu Original feature‑length documentary that will chart the life and career of Grammy, BRIT and Ivor Novello winner Duffy.
In the late 2000s, Duffy became one of the most recognisable voices in pop, with her multi‑platinum debut Rockferry and its global hit Mercy propelling her to international fame.
Then, at the height of her success, she stepped away from the spotlight entirely. For a decade, she disappeared from music, social media and public life without explanation.
In 2020, she broke her silence with a deeply personal statement, revealing she had been drugged, kidnapped and taken abroad, where she was violently and sexually assaulted. The trauma, she said, had forced her into isolation.
Since then, she has remained largely unseen — until now.
The new documentary will mark the first time Duffy has told her story in full.
The film will trace her journey from her upbringing in Wales to her rapid rise to fame, and then to the years of withdrawal that followed her ordeal.
It will feature unprecedented access to Duffy, extensive archive material and interviews with family, friends and industry peers.
Duffy claimed she had been "raped, drugged, and held captive" and spent four weeks barely conscious.
She had no idea what happened in that month until her attacker took her to an undisclosed "foreign country", where he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room.
She wrote on her website at the time: "It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country.
"I can't remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a travelling vehicle.
"I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me. I remember the pain and trying to stay conscious in the room after it happened.
"I was stuck with him for another day, he didn't look at me, I was to walk behind him, I was somewhat conscious and withdrawn. I could have been disposed of by him...
"I do not know how I had the strength to endure those days, I did feel the presence of something that helped me stay alive.
"I flew back with him, I stayed calm and as normal as someone could in a situation like that, and when I got home, I sat, dazed, like a zombie. I knew my life was in immediate danger, he made veiled confessions of wanting to kill me. With what little strength I had, my instinct was to then run, to run and find somewhere to live that he could not find.
"The perpetrator drugged me in my own home in the four weeks, I do not know if he raped me there during that time, I only remember coming round in the car in the foreign country and the escape that would happen by me fleeing in the days following that.
"I do not know why I was not drugged overseas; it leads me to think I was given a class A drug and he could not travel with it.
"After it happened, someone I knew came to my house and saw me on my balcony staring into space, wrapped in a blanket. I cannot remember getting home. The person said I was yellow in colour and I was like a dead person. They were obviously frightened but did not want to interfere, they had never seen anything like it."
The Something Beautiful singer was "warned" she'd be "finished" if she ever made her ordeal public and admitted she considered taking on a new identity and fleeing overseas.
Duffy ultimately didn't want to do an "immense disservice" to herself by "deleting" her previous life, having already lost so much.
A release date for the documentary is still to be revealed.
