Naomi Oni, 25, was nearly blinded by her friend Mary Konye when the latter followed her victim home from work before attacking her with corrosive liquid.
Konye, 22, had been driven wild with jealousy by her friend’s good looks and plotted to destroy her life.
And as her feelings of resentment bubbled over she draped herself in a veil and carried out the attack that changed her friend’s life forever.
But brave Naomi is determined to stay strong and has even forgiven her attacker, who still shows no remorse despite being jailed for 12 years in 2014.
PA
“I do forgive her, I owe myself the freedom to move on”
Naomi Oni
“I do forgive her, I owe myself the freedom to move on," she told The Daily Mail.
“But I still think she is a callous, vindictive person – a complete coward who betrayed me.”
Naomi has had to have several face operations since the 2012 assault.
Her recent comments come as a new BBC3 documentary reveals that Konye sent sympathetic messages to the victim after the ordeal while police were still hunting the attacker.
She attended Naomi’s 21st birthday party and when she was finally prosecuted she claimed her victim had thrown acid on herself to “gain fame and fortune”.
Now, five years on, Naomi has spoken out and revealed that she was on her way home from a Victoria’s Secret lingerie shop in Stratford when the attack took place.
She said: “I thought she was my friend and I couldn't understand why she did what she.
“To be betrayed – for someone to lead you to your own destruction – I was heartbroken.”
Acid attacks: The HORRIFYING injuries caused by this vile, cowardly weapon
SWNS.com
Speaking about the attack itself, Naomi said: “I looked to the side of me and I remember seeing someone in just black and the person's face being covered.
"There was a very cold stare and I remember thinking, 'Whoah, OK, just cross the road and go to your house'.
“Before I knew it I felt a huge splash and I immediately screamed.
“I was running down my road. I remember banging on the door, screaming 'it's burning, it's burning, acid, acid, acid’.”
She needed facial reconstruction surgery twice to treat her horrific burns at a specialist unit.
Doctors had to use skin from her thighs to rebuild her face and from behind her ears to create new eyelids.
Konye, of Canning Town, East London, was jailed in March 2014 for 12 years for the horrific attack after police reviewed the CCTV footage of Naomi being followed home from Westfield.
Acid Attack: My Story is on BBC Three on Thursday, January 4.