On Feb. 8, Rihanna was scheduled to perform the opening number at the Grammy Awards. She never made it to the event. The night before, then boyfriend Chris Brown was driving her to their hotel following a party when he received a text message from another woman. Rihanna challenged him, and a physical altercation ensued. "I was battered, I was bleeding, I was swollen in my face," she later told Diane Sawyer. The "Umbrella" singer went into seclusion with her family in her native Barbados but soon reconciled with her abuser. After realizing that other battered women may follow her example, she decided to leave Brown for good. "Even if Chris doesn't hit me again, who's to say [these men] won't kill these girls [in similar situations]?" she said. "That's not what I want to teach people." In June, Brown pled guilty to felony assault. He's serving five years of probation, has attended domestic violence counseling and has been ordered to stay 50 yards away from Rihanna (10 yards if they are attending the same industry event) until 2014.
The Top 10 Everything of 2009
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Art Exhibitions
- Top 10 Awkward Moments
- Top 10 Best Business Deals
- Top 10 Breakups
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Children's Books
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
- Top 10 Facebook Stories
- Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
- Top 10 Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Ideas
- Top 10 Heroes
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 News Stories
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Pariahs
- Top 10 Pictures of the Year
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 T-Shirt-Worthy Slogans
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Untruths
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 Worst Biz Deals
TIME charts the highs and lows of the past year in 50 wide-ranging lists