In May, Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty, passed away from cancer and other illnesses at the age of 70. The superstar didn’t make a public statement about his passing, but she did comment on the way he influenced her parenting recently. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of Smurfs, the Fenty mogul reflected on her late father.
“I’ve always dreamed of what type of grandfather he would be to them because of the favorite parts of my dad, you know?” the Fenty Beauty owner said when asked whether her kids got to meet Ronald. “I think it prepared me for having two boys, really. The adventurous side of me, the outside side of me, the daredevil — it’s how I want to raise them. I want them to be outside and in nature. No, like, tablet babies.”
Speaking of which, the artist brought both of her kids, RZA, 3, and Riot Rose, 1, to the event looking stylish as always. She shares both sons with A$AP Rocky, and they currently have another child on the way.
When the ET interviewer asked whether Rihanna’s father inspired her mindset around having adventurous nature-loving babies, she affirmed he did.
“That was the funnest part of my life, my childhood. Just running around outside, barefoot, free. You don’t get to do that anymore,” the mogul said.
It’s heartwarming to hear the entrepreneur reflect on the positive aspects of her father, considering she didn’t have the most harmonious relationship with him.
In 2019, Ri took her dad and his business partner, Moses Perkins to court and sued them for starting a company called Fenty Entertainment without her consent, alleging they were misusing her name for financial gain. However, the 37-year-old eventually dropped the lawsuit before it went to trial in 2021.
Although they had a complicated relationship, it wasn’t all bad. During a 2012 interview with Oprah, Rihanna acknowledged how difficult it was to reconcile the different versions of her father as it relates to how he showed up as a dad and how he treated her mother, who she’s close with.
“I couldn’t separate him as a husband from him as a father… He taught me everything, and as awful as he was to my mom, at times, it didn’t compare to how great he was as a father. I had to come to terms with that, and I was able to close that gap with him,” she said.
The two eventually reconciled, so Ronald had a chance to see his grandkids. In 2023, he did an interview with Page Six and said he spent time with RZA in Barbados.
“Everybody says [the baby] looks like me, but you know, babies change, faces change. He [resembles] a lot of Rihanna and Rocky together,” Ronald said of RZA.
The father of six also got to meet Ri’s longtime partner and spoke highly of him during the interview, describing him as “such a cool guy.”
“Very respectable. He’s taking to fatherhood very well,” he said of the rapper.
On Tuesday, July 8, the singer attended Ronald’s funeral at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium in her hometown, Barbados, with her sons and A$AP.
Sending love to Rihanna, and we’re glad to see she’s able to carry a part of her dad with her and use that magic to raise her kids.