NEW YORK – Singer Rihanna has told Rolling Stone magazine she agreed a judge could ease a stay away order against her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown over a violent altercation two years ago because she didn't want to hurt his career.

Singer Rihanna sits courtside during the NBA All-Star basketball game in Los Angeles, February 20, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

The 23-year-old told the music magazine it was "my decision" not to object to a Los Angeles judge's decision in February to downgrade a restraining order keeping Brown, 21, 50 yards away from Rihanna -- 10 yards at music industry events.

"It doesn't mean we're gonna make up or even talk again. It just means I didn't want to object to the judge," she told the magazine in an excerpt published Wednesday.

The singer added she had his music career in mind.

"We don't have to talk ever again in my life," she said. "I just didn't want to make it more difficult for him professionally. What he did was a personal thing -- it had nothing to do with his career. Saying he has to be a hundred feet away from me, he can't perform at awards shows -- that definitely made it difficult for him."

Rihanna's blunt admissions are a stark contrast to Brown, who last week threw an angry tantrum in the dressing room of a US morning chat show after clamming up when an interviewer brought up the topic of his 2009 assault on Rihanna.

Brown, 21, was promoting his new album "F.A.M.E.," while Rihanna talked to Rolling Stone about one of her singles, "S&M," off her fifth studio album, "Loud," that spawned No. 1 hit singles including "Only Girl (In the World)".

Rihanna told Rolling Stone she put up a front in public after the assault.

"I put my guard up so hard. I didn't want people to see me cry. I didn't want people to feel bad for me. It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and I refused to let that be the image. I wanted them to see me as, 'I'm fine, I'm tough.' I put that up until it felt real."

About "S&M," she said that "being submissive in the bedroom is really fun. You get to be a little lady, to have somebody be macho and in charge...that's fun to me. I like to be spanked."

And the pop star even confesses to a bit of sexting, every so often: "When you're not with the person you want to be intimate with, a picture is the next best thing," she said.

The Rolling Stone issue with Rihanna hits newsstands on Friday, April 1.