RIHANNA TELLS DIANE SAWYER IF THIS CAN HAPPEN TO HER IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYBODY!

Since Rihanna breaks her silence over being beaten by Chris Brown in a multipart interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer set to air Thursday and Friday.
"It's as a revealing an interview as I've seen," said a network insider. "She's just a brave, gracious young lady."

The first part will air Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." More will air Friday on "GMA" and the piece will conclude Friday night at 10 on "2-0/20."

Sawyer conducted the interview over the weekend at a downtown hotel, according to the source.

The interview, a "big get" as they're called in TV parlance, was in the works for months, the source said.

Rihanna was "extraordinarily revealing" the source said.

Last February, Brown, then her boyfriend, beat the Barbados-born singer as they sat in his car. He has since been sentenced to 180 days community labor, five years probation and one year of domestic-violence counseling.

"This can happen to me," she told Sawyer in a promo that began airing last night, "It can happen to anyone."

Brown has gone public multiple times since then, releasing a statement on YouTube, and appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live." Recently, he spoke to Hot 97's Angie Martinez, where he said he made a mistake.

"People make mistakes all the time," he told Martinez. "I'm learning from my mistakes every day and I regret it every second."

Rihanna tells Sawyer what happened that night with Brown, about her family life, and what life has been like during the past nine months.

"He was definitely my first big love," Rihanna told Sawyer of Brown.

There's also a sense - though nothing concrete - that her heart-to-heart with Sawyer may be the the last time she goes so deep with the Brown story, too.

There were no ground rules for the interview, according to the source.

The interview comes as Def Jam Recordings is getting ready to release Rihanna's new CD, "Rated R," which is due Nov. 23. The first single, "Russian Roulette," hits iTunes today. Also today, the video for "Wait Your Turn" will debut at Rihannanow.com.

The CD is said to be deeply personal, and deal with many of the issues she's gone through since the attack.

As part of the media blitz, she'll be on the cover of Glamour magazine's "Women of the Year" issue, out this week, and on Monday, she'll turn up on MTV's "The Alexa Chung Show."

There's also an unconfirmed report that she'll return to ABC on Nov. 23 to perform on "Good Morning America."

"She's a great girl," said the ABC insider. "She's extraordinarily unpretentious. She's just lovely. She's just somebody everybody would love to have as their big sister."