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Duffy Makes First Appearance in 10 Years After Revealing Abduction Experience
Content warning: this story discusses sexual assault.
Duffy is returning to the spotlight on her own terms.
Six years after sharing in a message to fans that she had been drugged, kidnapped and raped, the “Mercy” singer is set to open up about the harrowing experience that led to her decade-long retreat for the public eye in a new Disney+ documentary, multiple outlets reported.
The company's head of content for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Angela Jain confirmed the news at Series Mania on March 25, noting, according to Variety, that Duffy “disappeared off the face of the earth and hasn’t really spoken about what happened in that time, other than about five or six years ago in a social media post."
“She has entrusted us with her story,” Angela said of the 41-year-old. “So we really have a huge responsibility to handle this with care and sensitivity, because she’s speaking about what happened to her for the first time.”
The doc—which is set to be a feature-length Hulu Original, directed by Gil Callan—will cover Duffy’s full life, including her upbringing in Wales, rise to fame and her retreat from the spotlight following the traumatic experience. The project will also feature “new, unprecedented access” to the Welsh singer, as well as interviews from those close to Duffy (real name Aimee Duffy), per a press release obtained by Variety.
The Grammy winner broke onto the scene in 2008 following the success of her hit song “Mercy,” but abruptly stepped back from the spotlight in 2011.
In February 2020, she revealed her traumatic experience being held captive in a since-deleted Instagram post, as well as a subsequent essay on her website. Though Duffy never named her attacker, she said the person “made veiled confessions of wanting to kill me.”
"Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why?" she wrote at the time. "The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days."
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"Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There's no light way to say it,” she continued. “But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine."
Though she continued to stay away from the spotlight, Duffy did return to social media once more in 2024—this time with a motivating message about the origins of happiness.
"One day you will understand that happiness was always about learning how to live with yourself, that your happiness was never in the hands of others,” the since-deleted post read, in part. “One day you will realize that true happiness comes from within, and no external factors can define it. It was always about you."
For more stars who have stepped away from the spotlight, keep reading…
For free, confidential help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit rainn.org.
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Selena Gomez
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The reality star took a three-month break from the spotlight following the terrifying Paris robbery in October 2016.
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