Duffy, the Singer of the 2008 Hit “Mercy,” Said She Was Raped, Drugged, and Held Captive for Days

Duffy, the Welsh singer known for her 2008 hit “Mercy,” spoke out Tuesday for the first time in years to tell fans her silence came after being raped, drugged, and held captive for days.

“Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why,” Duffy wrote. “The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days.”

Duffy, whose full name is Aimee Duffy, took a hiatus from the music industry in 2011 after her second album, Endlessly, fared poorly on the charts and with sales. In the years since then, she appeared in a few films but did not release another album and hadn’t posted on Instagram since October 2017, according to Wales Online.

View this post on Instagram

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. 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 truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. 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. 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. 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 x Duffy 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.

A post shared by @ duffy on

Duffy wrote in her Instagram post that it took a long time for her to recover and that she opened up to a journalist last summer. The interview about what happened to her will be posted in the coming weeks, she said.

“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,” she said in the post. “I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.” (Read more from “Duffy, the Singer of the 2008 Hit “Mercy,” Said She Was Raped, Drugged, and Held Captive for Days” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE