Leave him, Rihanna!
One Bronx woman who said she endured bruises and bite marks for eight years from her husband said she sees herself in the young singer - and urged the Barbados beauty to steer clear of ex-beau Chris Brown.
It doesn't look like Rihanna is ready to listen.
She and the man who's accused of beating her remain holed up inside Sean (Diddy) Combs' house near Miami Beach, People magazine reported and sources have confirmed.
"I understand her, I would have done the same at 21," said the woman, who said she's been hiding from her husband since leaving him in 2001. She asked to be identified only as Mary, which is not her real name.
"It goes around and around. It may happen again and she may go back and it may happen over and over and she may continue to go back," said Mary, who was 26 when she first met the charming 23-year-old man who would become her husband.
Within months, red flags went up.
"It started with shoving, pushing, grabbing. And that escalated to punching," she recalled. "He would say 'I'm sorry, I won't do this again,' and then he would."
That year, he popped the question. "I was so willing to ignore my own feelings. I thought I could change him," she said.
They got married four years later and had two children together. Regular beatings and rapes continued, she said.
"He said, if you just do what I tell you to do I wouldn't have to punish you,'" she said. "That became the theme throughout the entire relationship. Then the punishments became more severe."
He forced her to perform sex acts to get money for diapers for their kids, she said, and he threatened her with guns.
By September 2001, she had had enough. Mary took her kids and ran to a shelter, later moving away to a different state.
The photo of Rihanna's battered face from an alleged Feb. 8 beating brought back painful memories.
"I also had black and blues, but they were where you couldn't see them - on my thighs, stomach, back. There would be bite marks too," she recalled.
Mary said she hopes Rihanna gets domestic violence therapy.
"It is dangerous for her to stay with him because he made a clear and lasting illustration of what he is capable of doing to her," she said.