Brown, who appeared with his mother Joyce and lawyer Mark Geragos, told King that when he first saw the infamous picture of Rihanna's battered face about a week after the incident, "I didn't know what to think at the time. I was like 'What?'"
"I was just disappointed in myself," he added. "I feel totally ashamed about what I did."
When King asked the R&B star why he felt he acted out violently against Rihanna, Brown said, "There's a lot of stuff I wish I could have changed that night."
He answered "no" when asked if he remembered the incident, but in the days following tonight's taped King interview, he clarified the remark, saying, "That 30 seconds of the interview they used of me was taken from a one-hour interview during which that same question was asked something like 4 or 5 times -- and when you look at the entire interview you will see it is not representative of what I said."
Brown told King he still loves Rihanna and when they briefly spoke after their fight, "we basically tried to work it out." He said that when he and Rihanna were later photographed in February at P. Diddy's Miami residence, "It was sort of like a 'Romeo and Juliet' story, like both sides not wanting us to kind of have contact, so we just got away and just wanted to -- and that's the main reason I was [photographed] on a Jet Ski.
"I know I got a lot of flak from that, and other people were like, 'Well, why is [he] on a Jet Ski? Why is he just acting like there's no care in the world?' Because I was rekindling my relationship with my friend."
Asked if he managed to rekindle his relationship with Rihanna, Brown said, "At the time, yes," continuing, "I'm pretty sure we can always be friends, and I don't know about our relationship, but I just -- I know definitely that we ended as friends." He admitted that if Rihanna dated another man, "I'd definitely be affected," adding, "if she's happy, I'm cool."
He said he feels his sentence -- five years of probation, six months of community labor in Virginia, attendance at a domestic violence program, and no contact with Rihanna for five years -- is "fair," but "kind of hard because of her being my friend for so long … it's kind of difficult."
He explained that his community labor requirement could entail anything from picking up trash to washing cars to graffiti removal. As for the domestic violence program, he said he's willing to learn how to control his emotions. "I'm not saying I have a problem, but... I'm willing to get counseling at the end of the day," he said.
King also asked Brown whether or not he thinks he "screwed up." Brown said, "All the time. Every day."
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