Welsh pop singer Duffy has revealed that she feels liberated after sharing, in painful detail, her harrowing experience as a kidnapping and sexual assault survivor.
In a new Instagram post, the 35-year-old artist also wrote about the divisive nature of easing lockdown procedures, gave thanks to health workers and asked fans to share their own stories, asking broadly, "How are you?" during these difficult times.
She wrote:
This evening, I can't sleep ... I have the comfort of my bed and the health of all my family, to take shelter in, but many do not.
Health workers face fatigue, with such uncertainty ahead, people are queuing at empty food banks and the landscape is changing.
You may or may not have read my words, recently. I found them to be liberating. And so I would sincerely like to know, how are you?
Tonight, some of us grieve the easing of enforced lockdown — and some of us appreciate it. The sense of security found in a common goal, a shared goal, is changing and could now stand to divide, which it must not, above all, in adapting to a new uncertainty.
I look forward to reading how you are, about your life, and current experiences. For you to share your stories visibly with others too.
After disappearing from the public eye for the majority of the 2010s, Duffy revealed earlier this year that she had taken a break from recording and performing due to ongoing trauma related to her experience as a sexual assault survivor. The "words" she references in the update refer to her recent, lengthy essay detailing how she was drugged at a restaurant on her birthday many years ago, taken to a foreign country, held captive and raped multiple times by an unnamed man.
The full account of her story remains posted on her website and comes with a heavy trigger warning.
After initially sharing her experience back in February, Duffy sent her first new single in over a decade, "Something Beautiful," to BBC radio personality Jo Whiley.
In a new Instagram post, the 35-year-old artist also wrote about the divisive nature of easing lockdown procedures, gave thanks to health workers and asked fans to share their own stories, asking broadly, "How are you?" during these difficult times.
She wrote:
This evening, I can't sleep ... I have the comfort of my bed and the health of all my family, to take shelter in, but many do not.
Health workers face fatigue, with such uncertainty ahead, people are queuing at empty food banks and the landscape is changing.
You may or may not have read my words, recently. I found them to be liberating. And so I would sincerely like to know, how are you?
Tonight, some of us grieve the easing of enforced lockdown — and some of us appreciate it. The sense of security found in a common goal, a shared goal, is changing and could now stand to divide, which it must not, above all, in adapting to a new uncertainty.
I look forward to reading how you are, about your life, and current experiences. For you to share your stories visibly with others too.
After disappearing from the public eye for the majority of the 2010s, Duffy revealed earlier this year that she had taken a break from recording and performing due to ongoing trauma related to her experience as a sexual assault survivor. The "words" she references in the update refer to her recent, lengthy essay detailing how she was drugged at a restaurant on her birthday many years ago, taken to a foreign country, held captive and raped multiple times by an unnamed man.
The full account of her story remains posted on her website and comes with a heavy trigger warning.
After initially sharing her experience back in February, Duffy sent her first new single in over a decade, "Something Beautiful," to BBC radio personality Jo Whiley.