Chris Brown assault was a ‘wake-up call’, says Rihanna

Washington (ANI): Pop star Rihanna has opened up about her time with former boyfriend Chris Brown, saying he was a 'wake-up call". Over a year after Brown plead guilty to Rihanna in February 2009, the 22-year-old singer tells the December issue of Marie Claire UK that she doesn't regret the traumatic experience.

"God has a crazy way of working, and sometimes when stuff happens you feel like, What did I do to deserve this? Why was it backfiring on me?" Usmagazine.com quoted Rihanna as saying in the interview. "But I needed that wake-up call in my life. I needed a turning point, and that's what God was giving to me," she added.

Rihanna said that breaking up in full view of the public eye was difficult to cope with. "All this terrible stuff they say to you, it breaks you down. [But] once you're back on your feet -- if you ever make it back on your feet that's the ultimate achievement," she said.

But she admits it was not easy to break up with Brown, 21, who later pled guilty to a felony and accepted a plea deal that included more than 1,400 hours of community labor in addition to five years probation.