Chris Brown can speak about Ray Rice's situation from a place of understanding.
And on Thursday, the R&B singer, who was sentenced to 5 years probation for his 2009 assault on Rihanna, told MTV News what advice he'd give to the former Baltimore Ravens running back. (Earlier this week Rice, 27, was suspended from the NFL for life after a shocking video from February surfaced showing him brutally punching then-fiancée-now-wife Janay Palmer/Janay Rice.)
"To Ray, or anybody else—because I'm not better than the next man—I can just say I've been down that road," said Brown, 25. "I deal with situations and I've made my mistakes too, but it's all about how you push forward and how you control yourself."
Brown told MTV News seeking professional help "is great," adding, "I still talk to my therapist twice a week, and it helps me to…if I'm frustrated and I'm dealing with something, to vent and say what I'm going through so I can hear from an actual clinical person, 'this is how you should react,' or 'it's good to feel this way because feelings, emotions, and energy are supposed to come and go. It's not supposed to stay there, you're not supposed to keep it inside, because it''ll bottle up and you'll become a monster.'"
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He's not the only one affected by domestic violence to speak out, either. On Friday, Robin Givens, who was married to Mike Tyson from 1988 to 1989, appeared on Today, calling the the released footage of Rice's violent actions "a game-changer."
"This conversation has become a different conversation because of that video,'' she said "However difficult it is for this poor woman, she will help myself and other women just to be believed that this is indeed possible, that this does happen to women."
Givens, 49, wrote a Time op-ed titled "Why I Stayed" about her experience in an abusive relationship with Tyson, 48. In it, she writes that after seeing the video of Ray "actually punching Janay Rice unconscious, I thought, this is what happened to me. The only difference was that when I came to, a doorman was carrying me over his shoulder, out of my fiancé's apartment, and into a car."
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On Today, Givens asked, "Why is it that the victimizer becomes the victim? Why is it that we want to protect these men? What is it about our society, what is it about us as women that we feel the need to protect them?"
Tyson did not respond to Today's request for comment.
For more information on domestic abuse or to get help for yourself or someone you love, visit the website for The National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1-800-799-7233.
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