Rihanna fears the "whole world hates" Chris Brown

Rihanna fears the "whole world hates" her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.

The beauty wanted to "protect" the R'n'B star after news broke he had attacked her in February, so she decided to give their relationship a second chance.

"I thought, 'What is he going through?' I had to protect him," Rihanna said in an interview with Diane Sawyer. "The whole world hates him now. His fans, his career, he lost me - I just need to let him know don't do anything stupid."

Although Rihanna was deeply in love with Chris, she couldn't get past his violent assault on her and the cracks began to show in their romance. She explained: "I resented him so much, and I always put the tough face on - the 'I can do anything' face, tried to play it off. But he knew. He kept asking me, 'You hate me, don't you? You hate me,' and I would lie and say, 'No'.

"Everything about him annoyed me, him being around me, him talking to me. Everything was annoying for me. So finally I just said, 'We can't do this. I cannot continue to do this.' "

Rihanna has revealed her father was violent towards her mother when she was growing up in Barbados and the 21-year-old singer is shocked she too ended up in an abusive relationship. "She never went to the hospital, but he broke her nose," Rihanna said.

"Domestic violence is not something that people want anybody to know, so she would just hide it in the house. I always said to myself, 'I'm never going to date somebody like my dad, never.' "

Meanwhile, Chris has spoken out again about the incident - where he bit, choked and punched Rihanna in his rented car - insisting the details should be kept private.

The 20-year-old singer said in a statement to MTV: "While I respect Rihanna's right to discuss the specific events of February 8th, I maintain my position that all of the details should remain a private matter between us.

"I do appreciate her support, and wish her the best. I am extremely sorry for what I did and I accept accountability for my actions. At this point I am taking the proper steps to learn about me and grow from my mistakes. I only hope that others in similar situations can learn from our experience as well. Abuse of any kind is always wrong. The rest I leave it to God."

Chris was sentenced to five years' probation and six months' community labour following the attack. He was also barred from contacting the singer for five years and told to attend domestic violence classes for 52 weeks.