Content warning: This story discusses rape.
It’s no longer a distant dream to see Duffy.
The Grammy-winning singer made her first public appearance in 10 years on TikTok March 25 to promote an e.motion remix of her hit song “Mercy.” The now 40-year-old can be seen lip-syncing along to her 2008 breakthrough track with the lyrics, “You got me begging you for mercy,” before winking at the camera.
E.motion wrote in the caption, “Some of you asked if Duffy was really doing a UK Garage remix with us…”
The appearance comes five years after she first shared details of a past scary experience that caused her to retreat from the spotlight.
In February 2020, Duffy (real name Aimée Anne Duffy) detailed in a since-deleted Instagram post—as well as a subsequent written essay—a harrowing ordeal in which she said she’d been drugged, raped and kidnapped in a foreign country, where she was held hostage over a number of days. She has never named her attacker.
The alleged ordeal caused her to step away from public life for 10 years before she finally felt ready to share her experience. She wrote at the time, “Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why? The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days.”
