LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – R&B singer Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to beating ex-girlfriend Rihanna, said he cannot remember hitting her and still loves her.
Brown, who rose to fame as a teenager with hits like “Kiss, Kiss,” was sentenced last week to five years probation and some community service for assaulting Rihanna in February on the eve of the music industry’s Grammy awards.
His attack left Rihanna, a singer of hits songs such as “Umbrella,” bruised and bloodied. Since then he has publicly apologized but not sat for any media interviews. After his sentencing, he spoke to star interviewer Larry King and to People magazine, and both released excerpts yesterday.
King, whose interview airs tomorrow night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” asked Brown if he could remember the event, and the singer told him “no.”
“I just look at it like, wow, I’m in shock, because, first of all, that’s not who I am as a person, and that’s not who I promise I want to be,” Brown said in a video posted on CNN’s website. “So when I look at the police reports or hear about the police reports, I just don’t know what to think.”
Separately, Brown told People in a story for the issue on newsstands Friday that he still loves Rihanna. “I never fell out of love with her. That just wouldn’t go away,” Brown said.
Brown, 20, said he was distraught the night of the event and “broke down” after he told his mother, who herself was a victim of an abusive relationship.
His mom, Joyce Hawkins, told People that Brown’s confession was “the most painful moment of my life,” and sitting with her son on Larry King’s programme, she said she was “totally shocked.”
“I know that Chris has never, ever been a violent person. Never,” Hawkins said.
But a story accompanying CNN’s video cites a probation report for Brown stating he and Rihanna had two other abusive incidents: one a verbal argument in which Rihanna slapped him and he shoved her, and a second in which he broke the windshields of a rented car while she was with him.
The CNN story also cites a Los Angeles police report describing the February assault by saying Brown put Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, in a headlock that cut off her breathing until she started to lose consciousness. He threatened to kill her, bit her ear and her fingers.
