Topics: Celebrity, Crime, Music, UK News, Mental Health
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault, rape, and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Five years ago, beloved Welsh singer Duffy tragically endured a horrifying ordeal which lasted a heartbreaking four weeks long.
In 2020, the 40-year-old 'Warwick Avenue' singer opened up about being abducted as she celebrated her birthday at a restaurant before being drugged and taken to a foreign country.
Duffy, who has since made a return to the public eye after a 10-year hiatus, previously bravely shared her story on her website.
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She began: "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."
Duffy explained that she was 'stuck' with the attacker for another day, continuing: "He didn’t look at me, I was to walk behind him, I was somewhat conscious and withdrawn.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 contemplated running away to the neighbouring city or town, as he slept, but had no cash and I was afraid he would call the police on me, for running away, and maybe they would track me down as a missing person."
The Brit and Grammy award-winner recalled: "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," Duffy carried on. "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."
Duffy said that it 'didn't feel safe' to go to the police with what had happened, writing: "I felt if anything went wrong, I would be dead, and he would have killed me. I could not risk being mishandled or it being all over the news during my danger."
She said she did later tell two female officers, first when someone later tried to blackmail her with the information, and again when three men tried to break into her home.
However, she didn't reveal whether they investigated the original ordeal.
Following the ordeal, Duffy bravely shared that she was at 'high risk' of suicide.
"I would not see someone, a physical soul, for sometimes weeks and weeks and weeks at a time, remaining alone," she added. "I would take off my pyjamas and throw them in the fire and put on another set. My hair would get so knotted from not brushing it, as I grieved, I cut it all off.
"In hiding, in not talking, I was allowing the rape to become a companion."
Duffy also shared that she considered changing her name and appearance and disappearing altogether to live in another country, writing: "I thought the public disclosure of my story would utterly destroy my life, emotionally, while hiding my story was destroying my life so much more. I believe that not singing is killing me.
"So, I just have to be strong and disclose it and face all my fears head on. I've come to realise I can't erase myself, I live in my being, so I have to be completely honest and have faith in the outcome."
She concluded: "I can now leave this decade behind. Where the past belongs. Hopefully no more 'what happened to Duffy questions', now you know … and I am free."
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
