Rihanna Explains How Her Father Inspired Her Parenting Approach

July 17, 2025 2

Rihanna is opening up about motherhood. The superstar spoke with Entertainment Tonight at the recent Smurfs red carpet premiere, and she talked about her late father, Ronald Fenty, and whether or not her kids got to meet their grandfather before his death.

“I’ve always wanted that,” she said. “And I’ve always dreamed about what type of grandfather he would be to them because of the favorite parts of my dad. I think it prepared me for having two boys. 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 be in nature. No tablet babies.”

And she acknowledged her father was the inspiration for that.

“Oh, for sure,” she explained. “That was the funnest part of my life, running around outside, barefoot, free. You don’t get to do that anymore.”

The singer’s fans have been urgently waiting for new music, and Rihanna dropped “Friend Of Mine“ this year from the Smurfs soundtrack. She gave an update on her next album earlier this year.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the singer dismissed claims of the project being a reggae album, saying, “There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited. Every time, I was just like, ‘No, it’s not me. It’s not right. It’s not matching my growth. It’s not matching my evolution. I can’t do this. I can’t stand by this. I can’t perform this for a year on tour.’ After a while, I looked at it, and I was like, this much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears. It has to count. It has to matter. I have to show them the worth in the wait. I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting 8 years, you might as well just wait some more.”

Rihanna has been focused on family, raising her two young sons with A$AP Rocky — RZA and Riot Rose — and a third child on the way. RZA was born in May 2022, and Riot Rose was born in August 2023.

Her dad, Ronald Fenty, died in May after a brief illness. He was 70.