It’s been eight years since Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna after a Grammy event. Few can forget the photos of Rihanna’s bruised and battered face showcasing the violence that transpired that evening.

In Chris Brown’s new documentary “Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life,” he finally opens up about that brutal domestic-violence incident with Rihanna in a somewhat more substantial way.

Brown reveals in Chris Brown: Welcome To My Life that he was 15 when he met the Barbadian singer, then age 16, at a 2004 show in New York City. The two quickly developed a connection and fell in love, but their relationship took a turn after Brown told Rihanna that he had slept with someone else prior to their relationship — something he had previously denied to the “We Found Love”. singer.

“My trust totally was lost with her,” Brown said. “She hated me after that. I tried everything, she didn’t care. She just didn’t trust me after that. From there, it just went downhill because there were too many verbal fights, physical fights as well. Mutual sides.”

“I’m just going to be honest,” Brown continues. “We would fight each other. She would hit me, I would hit her. It never was okay.” He continued, “I felt like a Fvvking monster.”

Brown then addresses the fight following the Clive Davis’ Grammy event in 2009. He says that the woman who was the focus of their initial trust problems showed up to the event and approached the couple. Rihanna was upset even though Brown was adamant that he didn’t know she would be there. A text message on Brown’s phone that Rihanna discovered later that night proved otherwise in her mind.
Once they were in the car, Brown claims, Rihanna started “going off; she throws the phone, [says] ‘I hate you.’” Brown adds “She starts hitting me.”

“She hits me a couple of more times,” he continues. “I remember she tried to kick me, but then I really hit her, with a closed fist, like I punched her. I busted her lip.”

Though Brown highlighted violent things Rihanna did in the car that night, ultimately he looked back and felt deep regret over what happened.

“When I saw it I was in shock,” he said. “From there, she just spit in my face, spitting blood on my face, so it enraged me even more, it’s a real fight in the car … a lot of the times I just look back at that picture and I’m just like, that’s not me bro, that’s not me. I hate it to this day. That’s going to haunt me forever.”

Brown says he pulled the car over, and Rihanna pretended to throw the keys out the window. He says that she then yelled for help, screaming “he’s trying to kill me.”

You can watch the video of Brown discussing the Rihanna abuse below, and maybe you’ll buy that his contrition is genuine. Still, it should give you pause when supporting any new music of his, like his new single, “Questions.” Along with the song, he announced his album Heartbreak on a Full Moon will be released on Oct. 31 (Halloween)