Rihanna stirs up lots of conversation in her Rolling Stone interview, particularly when she talks about her love life, her relationship with her father and the physical abuse she suffered from former boyfriend Chris Brown.

In the months after Chris Brown brutalized her, Rihanna admits: ‘I put my guard up so hard. I didn’t want people to see me cry. I didn’t want people to feel bad for me. It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and I refused to let that be the image.’

Speaking of her own tendency to be masochistic, Rihanna talks about her love-hate relationship with the media: “When I think about it, I really do take some pleasure in the negativity. I don’t want to say I’m turned on by it — but I’m turned on by it.”