Duffy marked her social media return after remaining out of the public eye.
The 39-year-old singer (whose full name is Aimee Duffy) took to Instagram on Tuesday, March 26, to share an inspirational video about the origin of happiness.
“One day you’re going to see it, that happiness was always about the discovery,” the voiceover said in the video. “The hope of listening to your heart and following it wherever it chose to go. Happiness was always about being kinder to yourself.”
The post continued: “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. One day you will realize that true happiness comes from within, and no external factors can define it. It was always about you.”
Duffy added a caption to the post, which read, “A little something to motivate the heart. Hope you are all doing well. Lots of love, Duffy.”
The songwriter has largely stayed out of the spotlight in recent years. Duffy originally announced an indefinite hiatus from music in 2011 but briefly returned four years later to contribute to the film Legend.
In 2020, Duffy broke her silence about being the victim of sexual assault and kidnapping to a foreign country.
“The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days,” she wrote via Instagram in February 2020. “Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. 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.”
Duffy confirmed that her long-term absence was the result of her recovering from the incident.
“You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke,” she explained. “In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken interview, if I can. I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends. I want to thank you for that.”
According to Duffy, a journalist inspired her to share her experience.
“You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter. Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it,” she wrote. “Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak.”
The social media update ended with Duffy asking for privacy, adding, “Please respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family. Please support me to make this a positive experience.”
