LOS ANGELES — On the night that she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, Rihanna says all she kept thinking was "when is it going to stop?"
"It wasn't the same person that says I love you," the 21-year-old Rihanna tells ABC's Diane Sawyer of Brown in a 20/20 interview airing Friday, a portion of which was shown this morning on the network's Good Morning America.
"He had no soul in his eyes," the singer continues. "Just blank. He was clearly blacked-out. There was no person when I looked at him."
Rihanna confirms earlier reports that the fight began after she saw a text message from another woman on Brown's cell phone as they were leaving a pre-Grammy Awards party.
"I caught him in a lie, and he wouldn't tell the truth. And I wouldn't drop it," she says. "I couldn't take that he kept lying to me, and he couldn't take that I wouldn't drop it ... It escalated into him being violent towards me. And it was ugly."
Rihanna tells Sawyer that during the Feb. 8 attack, Brown put her in a headlock twice and bit her ears and fingers.
"I was battered, I was bleeding, I was swollen in my face," she says. "My next option was to get out of the car and walk, start walking in a gown and a bloody face."
Yet, just three weeks after the incident, Rihanna and Brown were together again in Miami, a getaway that she now admits was a mistake.
"I went through a host of emotions," she explains. "It was confusing for me. I was still attached by love. But I wasn't thinking about the reality of the situation."
When asked about her feelings now, Rihanna says, "I don't hate him at all. I actually love and care about him. I want him to do well, have a great career, have a great life and grow up. And just take this as something you had to go through to grow up and learn."
The "Umbrella" singer also says she wanted to open up about the attack in order to close this chapter of her life.
"I knew I had to do this in order to move on for me and in order for my fans to move on with me because it would always be a question in their mind," she says. "I don't want that five years from now every time they see Rihanna, they think of Chris Brown beating me. That's not who I am. It's just one thing that happened to me."
Also see: Rihanna Pictures
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