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She’s done “Good Morning America” and “20/20,” but Rihanna gives one of her most revealing interviews about Chris Brown yet in the upcoming January issue of GQ magazine.

The Barbados-born beauty fields some difficult questions about her abusive ex, but admits talking about that ugly incident helps the healing process.

“It’s relieving,” she told the mag, “because it was built up for so long, and all these thoughts and emotions have been running through my mind for the past eight months. And now it’s like I finally get to let go and move on.”

Putting the Feb. 8 assault behind her is crucial in shifting the “Wait Your Turn” singer’s image from punching bag to reigning pop princess.

“I wanted people to move on with me,” she continues, “’cause the last big thing they know about me is That Night. And I don’t want that to be what people define me as.”

After the violent attack last spring when Brown brutally hit and bit the singer following a pre-Grammy party in Hollywood, Rihanna withdrew from the spotlight to nurse her wounds. She soon returned to the studio and poured her heart and hurt into her latest album “Rated R,” which takes on a distinctly darker, edgier tone than her previous Top 20-friendly song “Umbrella.”

“Nobody [helped me]. Really just music. And working,” she explains, “‘Cause I didn’t really want to be around anybody, for them to stare at me and stuff, and feel sorry for me.

“The physical pain comes and it goes,” she adds. “The bruises fade away. But the thing that stays with you is the emotional scars.”

The 21-year-old singer hopes her new album will inspire other women suffering from domestic abuse to stand up for themselves and get out of harmful relationships – especially those victims who might be blaming themselves.

“That’s part of the insight that I wanna give,” Rihanna says. “Stop blaming yourself for that outcome. There’s nothing you can do, ever, to excuse a man’s behavior like that.”-NY Post