Singer Duffy seen for first time in a decade after harrowing ordeal

She had one of the biggest hits of 2008 with Mercy – then Duffy disappeared amid harrowing circumstances. Now, she’s finally been seen again.

Welsh soul singer Duffy has made a surprise return to social media, a decade after her last public sighting – and five years after she revealed the harrowing circumstances behind her retreat from the public eye.

Duffy’s first album Rockferry was a monster success – a double platinum smash here in Australia and the best selling album of 2008 in the UK, with lead single Mercy the third-best-selling song of the year.

The reaction was much more muted when she released a follow-up Endlessly two years later: That album barely scraped the UK top 10 and quickly fell off the charts.

Her last musical release to date was in 2015, when she contributed several songs to the soundtrack of the film Legend – and then, nothing. No music, no gigs, no public social media presence whatsoever.

Until 2020, when the singer – real name Aimee Anne Duffy – opened a public Instagram account and offered a truly shocking explanation to a question which had by that point been the focus of some media speculation: Whatever happened to Duffy?

In a devastating post, she revealed that she left the public eye after an ordeal in which she was drugged, raped and held captive “over some days”.

Duffy circa 2008 … Picture: AP

… and making a rare appearance in 2025.

“Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak. The truth is, and please trust me I am OK and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days,” she revealed.

She told fans she was left suicidal after the ordeal and feared she would never recover. She kept the “dark secret” from everyone for 10 years.

Duffy went public in 2020 via written statements on her Instagram account and website, but then retreated once more from the public eye – until now.

Duffy released one of the biggest albums of 2008 – then disappeared amid devastating circumstances. Picture: LEON NEAL / AFP

A now-40-year-old Duffy made a surprise appearance on social media today, appearing in a TikTok by dance music producers Emotion, who are teasing a new remix of her classic hit Mercy. After teasing in recent days that they had the singer herself on board for the rework, today they posted a video showing Duffy herself briefly lip-synching to the song. Incredibly, it’s the first time fans have laid eyes on her in an entire decade.

Fans flocked to the comments to share their surprise and delight at a rare sighting of the star.

“Duffy! Where have you been?” one commented.

“Is this the real Duffy?” another asked.

“So good she’s back,” one fan wrote.

Duffy went into horrifying details about her ordeal in a detailed statement published online in April 2020, alleging that she was abducted and taken to another country.

Duffy's 2008 debut album was the fourth best-selling album in the world for 2008.

“It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country,” she wrote.

“I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a travelling vehicle. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me.”

Duffy alleged that she was later returned to her home and left to pick up the pieces of her life.

She said in her 2020 statement that she was “no longer ashamed that something deeply hurt me”. She added: “As dark as my story is, I do speak from my heart, for my life, and for the life of others, whom have suffered the same.”

“I can now leave this decade behind. Where the past belongs. Hopefully no more ‘what happened to Duffy questions’, now you know … and I am free.”

Originally published as Singer Duffy seen for first time in a decade after harrowing ordeal