By FEHINTOLA BETIKU and DONNA MCCONNELL

PUBLISHED: 15:01, 4 April 2012 | UPDATED: 16:50, 4 April 2012

The singer has reportedly defied her management team to reunite with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown - on record at least.

And now in a new interview for US Elle magazine's upcoming May issue, Rihanna opens up about her renewed relationship with her abusive ex-boyfriend.

The interview follows frenzied speculation that the couple have secretly rekindled their romance and the defiant says while she understands people have a negative reaction, that she will 'do what I want'.

In response to the revulsion felt by some that she would reconnect with the man who battered her, she told Elle: 'I respect what other people have to say. The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently.

'It's very hard for me to accept, but I get it. People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that's all right. I don't hate them for it.'

And perhaps defiantly in the interview which is accompanied by typically raunchy pictures, she added: 'I'm still going to do what I want to do.' 

Following the brutal assault of 2009, the singer admitted it was 'the hardest time of my life.'

'I was angry, sad, confused, torn. I was still in love. And I needed to talk about it.'

She admitted that she used the recording of 2009 Rated R album as therapy - a time during which she revealed a highly sexualised new image.

'That was the only way I could get peace, because it was in my head, and I couldn't leave it there.'

While the trauma left its scars, the singer says it was the catalyst that encouraged her to finally shed her public image and start being herself.

'It gave me guns. I was like, 'Well, f***.' They know more about me than I want them to know. It's embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of bring it. 

'I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I just want them to know the truth.

'It's like, one less skeleton in the closet, one less burden, one less secret; now you know that, so you can say what you want about it. I don't have anything to hide.'

According to reports Rihanna is rebelling because she feels she works too hard, and 'wants some time to herself'.

A source told the New York Post, 'Her management banned her from reuniting with Chris, but she said she’ll do whatever the hell she wants to'.

Apparently the You Da One performer's camp fear that she will go on to record an album with Brown just to spite Roc Nation who have desperately tried to stop the two from meeting.

The source continued, 'Rihanna is rebelling. She says they have been working her too hard and she wants some time to herself. 

'They fear she’ll secretly record an album with Brown, just to defy them.'

Whilst Rihanna's busy in Japan, her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown was spotted in Los Angeles running errands.

The 22-year-old was seen at a Land Rover dealership where he later left with a brand new Range Rover before popping in for a massage at Thai Classic Massage parlour.

Brown is currently working on his fifth studio album entitled Fortune which is set to be released on May 8 - three days after he turns 23-years-old.

Although Rihanna has said she is 'single and happy', some of her recent posts on Twitter would suggest differently.

On March 31, she tweeted: 'If u don't want me, someone else will... if I'm not good enough!'

She then followed that post with another tweet which could possibly spell out her feelings for Brown.

The tweet read: 'I'm makin' u wait....I need to know if ya worthy'.