“I came away getting a great sense of who she was.”

Oprah admits that she had her own ideas about Rihanna before she chatted her up for her new show, ‘Oprah: The Next Chapter.’ “I went there with my own ideas about who she was from watching her videos and listening to her music,” the talk show queen said. “I thought she was gonna be kind of a bada–, a kind of hard edged, rocker, pop woman.” So was she right?

Nope. Oprah revealed that behind Rihanna’s hard exterior is a vulnerable, sweet Bajan lady. “Nothing could have been farther from the truth,” Oprah said amid footage of RiRi giving her hugs and showing her around her old neighborhood. “She was thoughtful,” O said, cutting to a clip of the ‘We Found Love’ singer explaining how the “pedestal” of fame scares her. “She was very emotional,” Oprah added, set to a shot of Rihanna breaking down in tears. “She was vulnerable.”

Bet you guys never saw that coming based on her spikes, studs and middle-finger flashing, right? Oprah even calls her out on it: “You seem to have a liking to the F-word,” she notes, making RiRi giggle.

There seems to be a lot of footage of Rihanna interacting with locals, which Oprah says tells a lot about a person — “how people react to them.” The locals regarded her as one of their own as opposed to, you know, one of the most famous and stunning women on the planet. It’s a testament to how humble Rihanna is.

The interview appears to be a telling one, as Oprah explains, “She pushes the edge a lot, and there’s a reason for that.” What is it? To get Chris Brown’s attention? To sell records? To gain more Twitter followers? Oprah won’t say just yet — which is why you bet we’re tuning in on Aug. 19!

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