What happened with Rina Sawayama? Singer opens up on being groomed at 17

British-Japanese singer Rina Sawayama opened up about her childhood trauma and being groomed at the age of 17. While appearing in an interview on the BBC Three and World Service's program In Conversation, the 33-year-old personality revealed that the trauma inspired the creation of her second album Hold the Girl.

While speaking on the show, Sawayama revealed that the album was an outcome of extensive sessions of s*x and relationship therapy.

“This is the first time I’m talking about this, but essentially, through doing s*x therapy – s*x and relationship therapy – I realized that really something that I thought was a relationship that I had, when I was 17, was actually I was groomed. Then why that realization happened in my 30s was because I was finally his age."

She revealed that she was groomed by a schoolteacher and distinctly remembered how "uncomfortable" that made her.

“I remember distinctly how uncomfortable that made me, but I didn’t put the two and two together. And it was through this very intense form of therapy, which I feel so lucky to be able to have access to, that I was able to come to terms with that, and it completely broke my whole world apart."

Rina Sawayama said that the encounters made her develop "shame" around her s*xuality and she was "badly s**t-shamed," which led to a complete loss of her "sense of self."

“I detached from my skin like inside, I don’t know how to describe it. But I just felt so afraid of things. And I’d have anxiety attacks.”

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Rina Sawayama feels happy that people connect to her music

While speaking in the same interview, Rina Sawayama said that she did not realize that she was groomed until she was of her schoolteacher's age.

“Seventeen to me is a child, you’re in school, you have no autonomy most of the time, and especially if you’re in a school setting, if a school teacher is coming on to you, that’s an abuse of power. I didn’t realize that until I was his age."

Discussing her second album, Rina Sawayama said that although it was "one of the hardest things" to write, it was one of the "most incredible experiences."

“It makes me so happy when I see especially like women or femmes in the audience connecting to it because I haven’t talked about this in specifics. I’ve just said it’s about a period in my life when I was younger, but I know the truth and when I look out to the audience, and I see femmes or women connecting to it, I’m like maybe you know what I’m talking about, maybe you’re feeling it right now.”

Rina Sawayama added that she does not want to write about her childhood trauma in her third album, but is waiting for the day when she can "just write a song that’s just about love or s*x."