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Rihanna is breaking the internet in every direction this week. Days after her return to the stage after a seven-year hiatus for the Super Bowl halftime show, wherein she casually revealed her second pregnancy, the superstar has released the first family photos of herself, her nine-month-old son, and her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, alongside her first in-depth interview since becoming a mother.
The 34-year-old didn’t reveal she was pregnant again at the time of the interview with British Vogue, waiting instead for the Super Bowl stage. She did, however, candidly discuss her hopes to have more children with Rocky in the future. “My wish would be I would like to have more kids but whatever God wants for me, I’m here. I’m open [to whatever baby gender next]. Girl, boy. Whatever,” she said.
Rihanna, who noted that she and Rocky knew they were having a boy before she gave birth last year (“He wanted a boy”), said the bond between father and son is extremely strong. “I’m just sitting on the sidelines when they’re together,” she explained. “I’m literally the girl trying to get into the boys club, waiting for my turn. He is obsessed with his father. And I’m like: ‘Didn’t I give birth to you? What is going on?’”
“Their connection is undeniable,” she continued. “The second Rocky makes eye contact with him he is on fire. The whole thing they say about sons and moms, it’s a myth. Sons and fathers is crazy. I realized that the validation that you really need as a boy is from your father.”
Rihanna added that since becoming parents, the couple, who first dated in the early 2010s before reuniting in 2019, have fallen even more in love. “We’re best friends with a baby,” she said with a laugh. “We have to be on the same page, but we’ve always kind of had that in our relationship. Everything changes when you have a baby but I wouldn’t say it’s done anything but made us closer.”
As for her son’s birth — his name still hasn’t been made public (she, Rocky and their teams referred to him simply as ‘Baby’ during the interview and shoot process), “it was beautiful,” Rihanna said, adding she was “blessed” for that experience.
The first days as parents were a “headf*ck” though, she added. “We came home, cold turkey, had no one. It was just us as parents and our baby. Man, you’re a zombie for the most part. You’re just going through the motions, and even then you’re so paranoid. Because you’re like: they trusted us to come home with this baby? This new life? With us? No doctors, no nurses, we’re just… going home?”
Fans will be pleased to know that the singer-turned-beauty mogul also spoke about her plans to release new music, revealing she has been recording songs this entire time, but that she felt paralysed by the expectations to make something as good — or better — than her last album, 2016’s Anti. “There’s this pressure that I put on myself. That if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it,” Rihanna said, adding the notion is “toxic.”
“So I realised that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that,” she continued. “So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.”
