In her upcoming ABC News interview, Rihanna says Chris Brown was "definitely my first big love" but their relationship slowly became self-destructive.
"The more in love we became, the more dangerous we became for each other," the singer, 21, tells ABC News' Diane Sawyer in the sit-down airing Thursday on ABC's Good Morning America and Friday on 20/20.
In August, Brown, 20, was sentenced to five years of probation, six months of community service and one year of domestic violence counseling for leaving her bruised and bloody the night before the Grammy Awards.
This happened to me … it can happen to anyone," Rihanna tells Sawyer.
The singer also reflects on her difficult year in December's Glamour.
"I felt like I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears. That was the level of media chaos that happened the next day," Rihanna says. "It was like, What, there are helicopters circling my house? There are 100 people in my cul-de-sac? What do you mean, I can't go back home?"
She says that having a photo of her surface on the Internet after Brown's attack was "humiliating."
"That is not a photo you would show to anybody," she says. "I felt completely taken advantage of. I felt like people were making it into a fun topic on the Internet, and it's my life."
Since the incident, she says she has relied on her family and on God.
"My friends and family have been extremely supportive, and everyone has been there for me. But at some point you are there alone. It's a lonely place to be — no one can understand," she says. "That's when you get close to God."
