The ‘Mercy’ singer revealed in 2020 that she had been held captive for weeks
Singer Duffy, best known for her song "Mercy," has returned to social media after a more than three-year break.
The singer, full name Aimee Duffy, shared a post featuring an inspirational animated video with a voiceover speaking about the nature of happiness.
"One day you're going to see it, that happiness was always about the discovery," a voiceover says in the video. "The hope, the listening to your heart and following it wherever it chose to go. Happiness was always about being kinder to yourself."
Duffy wrote in the caption, "A little something to motivate the heart. Hope you are all doing well. Lots of love, Duffy."
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Singer Duffy, known for her song "Mercy," has returned to social media after a three-year break. She previously revealed a harrowing account of kidnap and assault. (Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
The post comes four years after her shocking account of having been kidnapped, raped and held captive for weeks, and three years after her last social media post.
In February 2020, Duffy addressed in a now deleted post the speculation on "what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why," after her 2010 album, "Endlessly."
"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 revealed. "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 has not named her alleged abuser and abductor but shared further details in an essay on her website.
On her website, Duffy wrote a lengthy essay explaining she had been kidnapped, held captive and raped by an unnamed abuser. (Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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"It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and traveled to a foreign country," she recalled in the post. "I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a traveling vehicle. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me."
She explained that she was stuck with her kidnapper for another day inside the hotel room and feared he would kill her before flying back to an unspecified location later.
"I knew my life was in immediate danger, he made veiled confessions of wanting to kill me," she explained. "With what little strength I had, my instinct was to then run, to run and find somewhere to live that he could not find."
The Grammy-winner didn’t give details on how she managed to flee her kidnapper, but she said once she was away, she struggled with the trauma. She also noted she was afraid to go to the police, believing that the need to hide from the kidnapper and not have her name in public was the safer option, and even grew distant from family that had offered help.
The Grammy-winner says she fled her kidnapper and went into hiding. (Brill/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
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"The toll of me hiding, this last decade, also meant I was estranged from all," she said. "What happened was not only a betrayal to me, to my life, a violence that nearly killed me, it stole a lot from other people too."
After struggling for years and being at a "high risk of suicide," she decided to share her story in the hopes it would help others.
"I have no shame in telling you either I had spent almost 10 years completely alone and it still burns my heart to write it. I owe it to myself to say it, I feel obliged to explain how challenging recovering truly was and to finally disclose it. I hope it comforts you to feel less ashamed, if you feel alone," she wrote.
In 2021, Duffy shared "passing thoughts" on Instagram in a series of posts featuring simple phrases written in black-and-white text, focusing on inspiring messages, like, "Sometimes, as hard as it is, we have to understand there are things we cannot accept and accept there are things we cannot understand."
Duffy shared her account hoping "it comforts you to feel less ashamed, if you feel alone." (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)
Currently, the bulk of the Welsh singer’s Instagram feed has been deleted, save the latest post, and one from 2020, featuring a black-and-white photo of her with audio of her song "River in the Sky" playing.
If you or someone you know is suffering from abuse, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Fox News Digital’s Julius Young and Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.
