UK singer Duffy returns to social media, years after her reported kidnapping and assault
Duffy, the Welsh singer known for the 2008 hit "Mercy," made her return to Instagram this week after a prolonged absence from the platform. Her reemergence comes four years after she last posted to the platform and revealed she had been kidnapped and raped.
On March 25, the 39-year-old singer, whose legal name is Aimee Anne Duffy, shared a video compilation of encouragement on her Instagram page.
"A little something to motivate the heart. Hope you are all doing well. Lots of love, Duffy," she wrote in the caption of the post.
The post featured a video of various memes and a voice-over reading a passage credited to Bianca Sparacino, a Canadian poet who often writes about mental health awareness.
"You’re going to realize it one day — that happiness was never about your job, or your degree, or being in a relationship," the voice in the video says in part. "Happiness was never about following in the footsteps of all of those who came before you, it was never about being like the others."
In the mid-2000s, Duffy entered the spotlight with her debut album, “Rockferry,” in which her song “Mercy” was featured. Her soulful and distinctive voice made an impact, and in 2008, the album earned various nominations and awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.
The singer last posted on Instagram in June 2020. The post featured a black-and-white photo of herself and, for sound, her singing voice.
According to NBC News, the singer disclosed that she had been kidnapped, held captive "for days," and assaulted in a post shared to Instagram, also in 2020, that has since been deleted.
“Of course, I survived. The recovery took time,” she wrote, according to NBC News.
That same year, the singer shared more about the incident in an essay published online, including that the traumatic event happened on her birthday after she was drugged at a restaurant.
"I was drugged then for four weeks and traveled to a foreign country," she wrote at the time. "I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a traveling vehicle. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me."
Ultimately, Duffy saved herself and escaped the situation but said she had waited to tell the police.
"Thereafter, it didn’t feel safe to go to the police," she wrote at the time. "I felt if anything went wrong, I would be dead, and he would have killed me. I could not risk being mishandled or it being all over the news during my danger. I really had to follow what instincts I had."
The singer ended the post hopeful that her essay might free her.
"I can now leave this decade behind," she ended the essay. "Where the past belongs. Hopefully no more 'what happened to Duffy' questions, now you know… and I am free."
Duffy's team did not immediately respond to TODAY.com's request for comment on March 28. NBC News could not independently verify Duffy’s kidnapping and assault story.
Metropolitan Police told NBC News on March 28 that there was no record of the singer speaking to them about her ordeal. NBC News also reached out to the National Crime Agency in the U.K. but did not immediately receive a response.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
