By Sandra Birungi

In the new issue of Rolling Stone to be released 31st January, Rihanna talks about her relationship with Chris Brown for the first time ever since the two got back together last year.

Rihanna, 24, was ridiculed for getting back to the 23-year-old after he assaulted her the night before the 2009 Grammy Awards. However, she has come out to reveal that her decision to get back to Brown was her choice because it made her happy. “I decided it was more important for me to be happy. I wasn’t going to let anybody’s opinion get in the way of that. Even if it’s a mistake, it’s my mistake. After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I’d rather just live my truth and take the backlash. I can handle it.”

“When you add up the pieces from the outside, it’s not the cutest puzzle in the world,” Rihanna says. “You see us walking somewhere, driving somewhere, in the studio, in the club, and you think you know. But it’s different now. We don’t have those types of arguments anymore. We talk about [stuff]. We value each other. We know exactly what we have now, and we don’t want to lose that.”

Chris Brown is currently under investigation for allegedly assaulting singer Frank Ocean to which Rihanna said if it is true, she will call it quits. “He doesn’t have the luxury of [messing] up again,” she says. “That’s just not an option. I can’t say that nothing else will ever go wrong. But I’m pretty solid in the knowing that he’s disgusted by that. And I wouldn’t have gone this far if I ever thought that was a possibility.”

“He made a mistake, and he’s paid his dues,” Rihanna adds. “He’s paid so much. And I know that’s not a place he would ever want to go back to. And sometimes people need support and encouragement, instead of ridicule and criticism and bashing.”