Rihanna pines for Chris Brown

Oprah must be America’s talk show version of John Farnham. Or, for our international readers, the glam rockers KISS. One farewell tour but they can just never say die. They keep coming back again and again and again. Which likens them to Oprah, don’t you think? Is that self-obsessed, narcissistic, money-hungry, ego-driven fame whore ever going to go away?

To give credit where it’s due, Oprah does give a good interview. And gets the best interviews.

Last week, the talk show juggernaut landed an interview with Rihanna (who doesn’t mind a spliff every now and then. But don’t take my word for it. The pop star happily and regularly tweets photos of herself blowing out an unidentified smoky substance. I’m guessing she’s not smoking a Marlboro Light).

A highlight (or lowlight, shall we say) of the interview, was Rihanna pining for Chris Brown and basically saying he was her best friend, the greatest love of her life.

This wasn’t the only time she has publicly reconnected with him since he bashed the shit out of her prior to the 2009 Grammys.

Brown famously appeared on a remix of one of her recent tracks, Birthday Cake.

The public was up in arms.

How could she do this? they declared. What kind of example is she setting for her fans?

Rihanna’s speech on Oprah is just the latest step in a long-term plan to get the public used to seeing them together. Rihanna and Brown are going to both appear (and possibly perform) at the MTV VMAs, held next month.

The tragic truth is this: No matter how confident, beautiful, successful, talented, smart, wealthy or powerful a woman is, she will quite often go back to the man who abused her. It is a sad part of the abuse cycle. Man beats woman. Woman leaves. Man begs forgiveness. Woman returns. Repeat ad nauseum.

Pop stars don’t, and shouldn’t, take the public’s feelings into consideration whenever they make a move.

Rihanna admitted her father beat her mother. It would not be surprising if Brown’s father beat his mother too.

People become stuck in these relationships and end up repeating their parents’ lives over and over again because it is all they ever know. Victims go back to their abusers, or are attracted to abusive men, in the hopes that they can “fix” their man and change him.

Rihanna is so, so , so much better than this. I hope she realises what she has done and has the strength to leave Brown for good. Chances are the Grammys incident was not the first time he raised his hand against her. And it won’t be the last.