"Just one day after my nikah, I realised in my hearts of hearts that this was not going to work and I knew I was headed for trouble." confides Noor-ul-Ainne, the British-Pakistani singer Annie who shot to fame with her trademark curls and the catchy single 'Mahiya'. "In hindsight it was stupid of me to go ahead with the rukhsati but I thought my love could change him."

Going through a divorce is a traumatic experience even for the brave ones but going through such a personal traumatic ordeal in such a public way can batter and knock the confidence of the bravest. And Pakistan is no Hollywood, where disgruntled lovebirds air dirty linen in public. I don't remember Shaista Wahidi, Shamoon Abbasi or Selma Hasan talking about their salacious gory details post breakup. But maybe, that was another generation who maintained stoic silence and felt no need to set the record straight.

I meet the ‘Mahiya’ singer at her family home in Romford, a large suburban town in northeast of London, where she has been living since she fled from her husband Malik Naureed Awan in Dubai.

"Lucky, I don't live in a desi area where I'm instantly recognisable," she says sounding relieved. "Going to those places is asking for trouble. It's not embarrassing instead just uncomfortable because I can hear people whispering and sneering. Some will come up and say they support me but others will just be snide. And the fact that everybody knows especially the really intimate stuff my husband raised in those interviews; I mean nobody likes to be reminded about such things."

The 25-year-old went through one of the most public and bitter breakups in Pakistan but she's upbeat. At least that's what she says."You know, I'm such an optimistic person to the point of being dheet that I don't feel weighed down. I'm not going to lie but I was going through all this negativity at a point but I believe that every adversity is an opportunity and I'm looking forward to a new life.

"However, right now I'm just being a bum! I know it sounds soooo cliché but when you're in a situation that I'm coming out of: like being locked up in the house and doing nothing but eating out of sheer boredom and depression, sleeping and only going out to the places and meeting people that your husband approves off- I am just enjoying being myself." she says in her consistent matter of-fact-manner, "and spending time with my lovely family and friends without who I would not have been able to get through this."

There is truth in her last statement.

When I arrived, I was ushered in by a twenty-something relatively youngish looking man with a ruffled beard. I ask for Dr Khalid, Annie's omniscient and extremely distraught father who greeted me and told me to wait for Annie in the exquisitely decorated and welcoming drawing room.

While I waited, sipped tea and nibbled cashews on the chilly winter evening, Annie's 18-month-old endearing nephew, Musa, strutted into the room. He was diligently followed by his amiable burqa-clad-mother who I was told was Annie's sister- in-law and wife of the man who had welcomed me at the door.

During my two-hour long stay, the domestic banter I overheard in the Khalid household, mostly about Naureed unsurprisingly, was a proof of the unadulterated, warm and protective love they all had for their sister, daughter and aunt.

When Annie finally did arrive flashing her 1,000-watt smile, it was hard not to notice that the stunner who we're more accustomed to seeing in figure- hugging jeans could easily slip into the slacker look if she wanted. Her hair was tightly pulled back and her luscious locks looked like an overgrown bushy hedge. With close to no makeup except the black kohl in her eyes which complemented her well defined eyebrows and added character to her pale wheatish skin, she lightened the room with her presence.

How could anyone not fall in love with her?

She exuded the confidence of a diva even in her navy blue chunky knitted jumper and black leggings, sported by a brown and maroon shawl and blue shiny flip flops over her grey woolly socks, proving she can look every bit the girl next door too.

I ask her how she's feeling especially now that everything is out and the whole world knows the torment she's been suffering? She says she never wanted anybody to know and never thought she'd come out on TV but in the end was compelled to. "I don't think any woman wants to do that and it's unfair if she has to. But you know how the media is and what people are like, I couldn't keep quiet as that would be a sign of weakness."

Hers was never a fairytale romance; as the groom's relatives got into a brawl with the police on the wedding night when lights were not turned off at 10 pm and she was rushed to the hospital for her deteriorating Hepatitis A on her big day too. "Most people know that I was hospitalised but what they don't know is that I didn't really even attend my own mehndi. It's amazing how the human body reacts to emotional stress, I can't even begin to explain the pain I was going through."

She says that Naureed had started physically abusing her just after the nikah but she went ahead with the rukhsati anyway because of the pressure."You know what our society is like...." trying to sound carefree but her words are ever so measured, "people would have said so many things or assumed that I was having an affair or have run off with somebody. And then, there were so many people flying in from half way across the world and so much money had already been spent.

" I should have been selfish."

She fervently rejects her husband's claims that this was anything but an arranged marriage and explains that the she met him for the first time in mid-April, when the date for the nikah had been set."All these claims about travelling for eight months before our wedding are ludicrous. I didn't pursue this man, it was him who did… to the point that his family were incessantly calling my parents."

However, she admits travelling with him to Sri Lanka to attend a T-20 cricket match before the wedding and that he was a changed man then."I loved the way he took care of me, my parents, the way he laughed and his pudgy hands." This is the closest she's been to wistful nostalgia so far.

The first time he raised his hand on Annie was in his family home in Abbotabad on Chaand Raat." I even remember the date, 20th August. I was watching TV with his family and came upstairs to call my sister. He followed me behind and asked why I had come upstairs? I told him that I wanted to have a private conversation which was hardly anything noteworthy. I perfectly understand the Pakistani culture of respect that exists but what if somebody wants to get up and use the toilet. Initially, he began speaking to me rudely and I shouted back 'what the hell is wrong with you?' And that was it. He started abusing and hitting me like a monster that day for 25 minutes and I screamed and yelled at the top of my lungs but apparently nobody heard me.

"A part of me was beginning to fall in love with him but I wish I had told him it was over that night -as my heart died that day."

She might have tried to fight back, one imagines, she's a smart girl after all. "No way!" she suddenly shrieks. "He's an extremely fat and powerful guy you know and let's be honest overweight too," and  bursts into hysterical laughter. "He's six feet tall and weighs around 120 kg. There's no way I could have fought back. I just used to think how do I get out of this place alive?"

Displaying little emotion, she recalls him throwing her books and trying to tear them because he disliked her reading and another occasion when she was waiting for her marathon trainer to arrive, he got angry first thing in the morning because she didn't hug him back when she was sleeping that night."I was in such a great mood and really looking forward to the training session but he woke up in a terribly grouchy mood and started yelling....'Go find another man you *****'. He hated everything that I enjoyed doing or had an affinity towards."
Before committing to the marriage, the singer was given the idea she'd be allowed to pursue her dream of making music but soon after she realised that would not be the case."I don't understand why he married a commercial singer if he didn't want me singing. For me it was like telling me to stop breathing."

This, despite the businessman investing 300-400 thousand dollars on building a state-of-the- art sound proof studio which had equipment from US, England and Qatar. "He would take me to see the ongoing work and show me around but I was not allowed to make any new music or sing commercially. It was just his way to mentally torture and provoke me."

Naureed sounds like a loathsome, obnoxious and a vile man to have as a companion for life. But what seems really irksome is that despite running a multinational business which spans over several continents and a has a turnover of a few hundred million dollars (withholding the speculations that he is a hoax who has absconded from Dubai) he appears to be a very unstable man who has little patience for contradicting views.
"I don't really think I gave him a reason to be insecure," Annie rationalises, "I told him quite clearly that my family would be my first priority which is why I even tried to detach myself from my music while I was living with him. In the end, I think I was just a trophy wife for him who he could adorn in the most ostentatious clothes and shoes and show off to the world.

"In front of people, he would go on about his wife regardless of how he treated me at home. And this is a behavioural pattern I've seen in a lot of men who are exhibitionists."

Do you think he loved you? I ask.

She switches uncomfortably in the grand oversized mahogany  brown armchair she's curled up in, adjusts her shawl and after a moment's pause says, "No."

Everybody has their own definitions and perceptions of love but you don't put through someone you love through all this. There was a strong feeling between us but I don't know what it was."

The obvious question that comes to mind when she says her husband hit, slap and threw her was why on earth did she agree to spending the rest of her life with a man she barely knew? Aren't she and her parents partly to blame for marrying their daughter off to a dubious 26-year-old who seems to be claiming an online Forex trading, airline and events management company too.

"I think it just goes to show that even parents can make mistake. I think my parents were just humbled by his family, they just seemed like a good God fearing people and you can't really go wrong with that."

But surely the money had something to do with that. All Pakistani parents deem financial security as one of the most important if not their number one priority when gauging potential suitors.

Her father who has just entered the room and is forensic physician with Scotland Yard interjects and answers that one: "It was not like that she didn't have other proposals. In fact those proposals were much better than him (Naureed) and those people were much more established than this bugger and came from much better families too."

"I'm such a dreamer and I just continued to believe it'll all be ok and I had this preposterous idea in my head that he'll be my prince charming. Even though I knew we outwardly didn't look compatible but love makes a person look like the most handsome person on earth. And anyways, I'm not a superficial person, I've seen my fair share of handsome men who can be absolute pigs." For a girl who has pretty much grown up in the public eye, her words reflected her coming of age. "

And it is precisely this maturity and mellowness that made her acknowledge that she wants to fall in love again (once, Naureed divorces her of course). "I want a man that can handle and my personality," she says in an edgy tone."But I don't think it'll be someone from Pakistan."

My quizzical look which clearly asks, "really?" She takes a deep breath and replies, "I'm not generalising but it is the case of once bitten twice shy. I've been through it and don't want to again. You've got to admit there is a difference between Pakistani and British guys. There'll be some things that they'll always raise their eyes over no matter how modern they are.

"And modernity is a state of mind, a school of thought and you just can't buy that. It's just a very different society in which they've been brought up," she admits tentatively.

The benefit of having half the world know about her relationship meltdown has had its own benefits.

Innumerable women have got in touch with her who are in abusive relationships or have just come out of them commending her for valiant struggle which she describes as overwhelming.

"It sounds so cheesy but if I've helped or changed one women's life then I've fulfilled my purpose and all that pain that I went through was not in vain. I don't say to Allah, why did it have to be me because Allah doesn't put people through such situations without a reason. If me walking away from that relationship has helped even one person, then my purpose is fulfilled."

The evident discomfort on her face as she gathers her thoughts is visible and takes her back to Naureed once again. "My relationship with him was a nightmare, revolting and there was absolutely no intimacy. I began to hate his 'pudgy' hands that I once found cute. His laughter that enticed me once upon a time began started to annoy and irritate me like anything.

"And stars and role models like Rihanna make me cringe for rekindling her romance with Chris Brown, an ex that abused her. It becomes something like self-abuse. I think I did reinforce his behaviour because I gave him the impression that even though you hit me, I'm back and it's ok because I love you."

Heartbroken she is not but vengeance is the emotion that prevails over the pop princess as she lists Naureed's innumerable faux pas over the past month which are bound to land him in hot waters when her legal team will contact him. The long term impacts of divorce, heartbreak and betrayal will become apparent in the years to come but for now it's safe to say that it has helped Annie grow into a woman, a very strong one for that matter.

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In rock chick mode for Ammar Belal’s custom jeans or bumming out at home, this one’s a stunner...