The status of their relationship has been tensely debated for years since their explosive break-up.
And Rihanna in a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey last weekend admitted despite its violent end, she still loves ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. The 24-year-old singer confirmed to the talk show host in a revealing interview that the pair ARE still ‘very close friends’ and that despite leaving her battered and bruised in the road after a vicious beating, she ‘still loves him.’
And in words that must have felt like a stake through the heart of Brown’s current long-suffering girlfriend Karreuche Tran added: “We love each other and we probably always will.”
The television special for Oprah: The Next Chapter showed Winfrey describe the fall-out from the horrific night after a pre-Grammy party in 2009. After re-counting the events, a tearful Rihanna, real name Robyn Fenty, opened up about where the pair’s relationship now stands. Of the incident in 2009, Rihanna conceded: “It was embarrassing it was humiliating… I lost my best friend,” she said. But the singer admits since the restraining order was dropped against Brown in February 2011, the pair have been working on their friendship, having seen each other as recently as last month in St Tropez. “We’ve been working on our friendship again and now we’re very close friends,” she said. “And that’s not anything we’re going to try to change.” But she said it’s still difficult to see her ex, because her feelings are conflicting. “It’s awkward because I still love him. My stomach drops and I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me. I have to maintain it and suppress it,’ she explained, adding, ‘When you don’t understand those feelings you can make a lot of mistakes.”