Rihanna Admits She ‘Still Loves’ Her ‘True Love’ Chris Brown In Resurfaced Oprah Interview

During an intimate talk with Oprah from 2012, Rihanna opened up about where she stands with Chris Brown today, and admitted that she’ll ALWAYS love him, despite their messy past.

UPDATE: We have confirmed that this interview between Rihanna and Oprah actually took place back in 2012, on Oprah’s Next Chapter series on OWN. It was then re-used and uploaded for the Sept. 2, 2020 episode of Oprah’s podcast, Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations.

Rihanna will never stop loving Chris Brown. The singer spoke to Oprah Winfrey for the Sept. 2 episode of Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, and got deep about her relationship with Chris. During the chat, she admitted that Chris is her “true love,” and said that she considers him the “love of [her] life.”

“We’ve been working on our friendship again and now we’re very, very close friends,” Rihanna explained. “We’ve built a trust again, and that’s it. We love each other and we probably always will. That’s not anything that we’re going to try to change. That’s not something you can shut off if you’ve ever been in love.”

However, RiRi confirmed that she and Chris are not seeing each other romantically again. “He’s in a relationship of his own,” she said (Chris welcomed a son with Ammika Harris in 2019). “I’m single. But we have maintained a very close friendship ever since the restraining order’s been dropped. We’ve just worked on it little by little. It has not been easy.”

Rihanna obtained a restraining order against Chris after he physically assaulted her before the Grammy Awards in 2009. The two had been dating for nearly two years at the time of the singer’s assault. Eventually, Rihanna agreed to drop the restraining order in Feb. 2011. “I have forgiven him,” she revealed now. “It took me a long time. I was angry for a long time. I was resentful, I held a grudge. I was dark. I was angry. It was coming out in my music and my clothes and my attitude. I didn’t like that feeling. It was heavy.”

Rihanna and Chris briefly got back together in 2012, but split for good in 2013. However, fans have still held out hope for another reconciliation. While that hasn’t happened, Rihanna revealed that she does still see Chris. “We went to a mutual friend’s party on a yacht [in St. Tropez],” she said. “It’s awkward because I still love him. My stomach drops. I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me. I have to maintain that and suppress it and interpret it and understand it and understand that it’s not going to go away. That is peaceful. If you don’t understand those feelings, you can make a lot of mistakes.”

She also dished about why things didn’t work out between them years ago. “We were very young and very spontaneous,” Rihanna said. “We ran free, we ran wild. We were falling in love and going at a really rapid pace that we forgot about ourselves as individuals. We forgot about our personal discipline.”

At the end of the day, Rihanna just wants the best for Chris, even after all he put her through in the past. “I truly love him,” she concluded. “The main thing for me is that he is at peace. I’m not at peace if he’s a little unhappy or he’s still lonely. I care. It actually matters that he finds that peace.”