Though Rihanna's music and edgy fashion choices often take on a harder edge (and she certainly makes no apologies for her outrageous Twitter beefs), the pop superstar uncharacteristically shows her softer side in a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar.
The August cover girl reveals that after experiencing brutal heartache, she has trouble opening herself to love again.
"When I was in love, I fell so hard. I was really, really, really in love. The way it made me feel was priceless. And in a blink of an eye my whole life changed," she says, making a not-so-subtle referance to her intense relationship with controversial R&B star Chris Brown. Their high-profile love affair came to a shocking end when he plead guilty to felony assault for brutally beating her in a car on Grammy night 2009. "Everything that I knew was different. I never thought I'd feel that pain in my life. I'm afraid of feeling that again," Rihanna says candidly.
She also admits to having problems with emotional intimacy.
"I have been conservative in my love life… it's pretty much nonexistent," she says. "If I come across someone who I find really cool, I'll hang out. But the minute I find that we're getting too close I just -- I don't let people in."
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But while she acknowledges the relationship damaged her, she also curiously hints that she's over it when talking about her controversial decision to collaborate with her infamous ex on a remix of her song Birthday Cake.
"I understood that people had every right to be concerned about it. But I didn't see it that way because I'm in a different place."
Hmmm ... looks like someone's trying to have her "cake," and eat it too.
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