(Newser)
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Rihanna knows her fans aren't thrilled about the time she's spending with abusive ex-beau Chris Brown—but she doesn't much care. "I'm still going to do what I want to do," she says defiantly in a new interview in Elle. "I respect what other people have to say. The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently. People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that's all right. I don't hate them for it." The 24-year-old bombshell singer apparently doesn't set anyone straight about rumors that the two one-time lovers are collaborating more than just musically—but does say she "still needs to find the person who balances me out."
She even says the night Brown pummeled her black and blue (and was sentenced for it) was "liberating" because the public discovered the truth about what she was dealing with. "It gave me guns," she says of the attack. "I was like, well, eff, they know more about me than I want them to know. It's embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of 'bring it.' I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I want them to know the truth."
