Rihanna’s dad, Ronald Fenty, dead at 70
Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty, has passed away at the age of 70 after a “brief illness”.
Fenty passed on the morning of May 31st in Los Angeles. Starcom Network News, a local radio station in Rihanna’s hometown of Barbados, first shared news of his passing. Starcom reported no cause of death except a “brief illness.”
Family members reportedly gathered around Fenty in California. On May 28th, Rihanna’s brother Rajad Fenty was spotted visiting the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre to visit his father, and it was believed that Rihanna was with him.
Rihanna never spoke at length about her father; in 2011, she told Vogue that her relationship with him was “strange.” She elaborated, “That’s the only word I can think of to describe it, because you grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness’ sakes!”
In 2009, Fenty sold information to the media after she was assaulted by Chris Brown in February of the same year. “He does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it. You hear the horror stories about people going behind people’s backs and doing strange things, but you always think, Not my family. My father would never do that to me,” Rihanna reflected at the time.
Rihanna also filed a lawsuit against her father in 2019. The lawsuit accused him of ignoring several requests not to conduct business on her behalf. It claimed that he attempted to trademark the Fenty name, despite Rihanna’s makeup company already doing so. She eventually dropped the case.
This year, Rihanna will take on the role of Smurfette in the new Smurfs Movie. At the MET Gala, the global superstar revealed her third pregnancy with her husband A$AP Rocky. The singer previously revealed another pregnancy during the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime show.