Just one week before she's set to perform at the Grammys, pop star Rihanna is finally confirming what many have assumed for some time: She is back together with ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown.

The Barbados-born singer revealed to Rolling Stone that nearly four years after Brown brutally assaulted her the night before the 2009 Grammys, the pair have reconciled, but this time, "it's different."

"I decided it was more important for me to be happy," she tells the magazine, which hits newsstands at the end of January. "I wasn't going to let anybody's opinion get in the way of that. Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake."

Rihanna reveals that, while she knows many will be disappointed in her, she's ready to be honest about their relationship. "After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash. I can handle it."

The "Diamonds" singer told Rolling Stone that Brown, who split from his on-and-off girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, just months ago, has changed from the man he used to be, but that she still has her guard up. "He doesn't have the luxury of [expletive] up again," she says. "That's just not an option."

"I can't say that nothing else will ever go wrong. But I'm pretty solid in knowing that he's disgusted by that. And I wouldn't have gone this far if I ever thought that was a possibility."

The singer, who recently collaborated with Brown on her hit single, "Nobody's Business," admits that it's not a perfect situation, but that they're trying to make it work. "When you add up the pieces from the outside, it's not the cutest puzzle in the world," Rihanna told the magazine. 

"But it's different now. We don't have those types of arguments anymore. We talk about s***. We value each other. We know exactly what we have now, and we don't want to lose that."

Read more: 'Girls' star says Rihanna 'cracks my heart in half'