Rihanna on A$AP Rocky’s Bond With Their Son, Wanting More Kids, and Her Plans for a New Album This Year
Days after her Super Bowl performance and second pregnancy reveal, Rihanna gave British Vogue the honor of dropping her first in-depth interview since becoming a mother to her and boyfriend A$AP Rocky’s first son in May 2022. While Rihanna did not reveal she was pregnant again at the time of the sit-down, she did candidly discuss her hopes to have more children. “I am very happy!” she said. When reminded that she once told the magazine she wanted three or four kids, Rihanna said with a laugh, “Oh shit. You really gotta be careful with your mouth.”
“Listen, I’m down for whatever,” she continued. “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 revealed earlier in the interview that she and Rocky did know they were having a boy the first time. “Rocky wanted to know. He wanted a boy,” she said. “At first he was open, then he was like, ‘Nah, I want a boy, I’m sure.’ I was just like, ‘Lord, please let this man get what he wants…’”
The bond between Rocky and their son is extremely moving to Rihanna, she admitted, and their own partnership has evolved since they started parenting together. “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.”
With Rocky and their baby boy, whose name they did not share, “I’m just sitting on the sidelines when they’re together. 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. 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.”
As for her son’s birth, “it was beautiful,” Rihanna said, adding she was “blessed” for that experience. The first days as parents were a “headf*ck” though, she said. “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?”
The two have adjusted since then. And while Rihanna and Rocky are expanding their family, she still has plans to release new music this year too. While 2016’s Anti was her “most brilliant album” in her opinion, Rihanna admitted her own perfectionist tendency has been getting in the way. “I realized 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 said. “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.”
The outlet revealed that Rihana has been recording new songs for years that she falls in and out of love with. Listening to an unreleased track is “almost like trying to dress like you used to dress,” she admitted. “It’s like, ‘Ew, no. I would never wear those again.’ Your taste changes, your vibe changes.”
But a new album this year is Rihanna’s goal: “I want it to be this year. Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos.”
You can read the full interview here and see the first fashion editorial photos of the family of three that British Vogue took.
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.