Rihanna's Dad Ronald Fenty Dead at 70
Originally appeared on E! Online
Rihanna and her family are in mourning.
The pregnant "Diamonds" singer's dad Ronald Fenty has died, multiple outlets reported May 31. He was 70.
While the cause of his death was not made public, he had recently battled an illness, the reports said. Sources close to the Fentys told Starcom Network News, which is based in their home country of Barbados, that family members gathered in California before Ronald passed away in the early hours of the morning.
News of his death comes days after Rihanna's brother Rajad Fenty was photographed arriving at a Los Angeles hospital, reportedly with the Grammy winner in the car, TMZ reported.
In addition to the two, Ronald is also survived by the siblings' mom, his ex Monica Braithwaite, and the former couple's other son together, Rorrey Fenty, 35, as well as the patriarch's three kids Samantha Fenty, Kandy Fenty and Jamie Fenty from past relationships.
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Rihanna— who is expecting her third baby with A$AP Rocky—was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty to Ronald and mom Monica Braithwaite in 1988. The 37-year-old's parents had divorced in 2002 when she was 14—two years before she moved from their hometown of Bridgetown, Barbados to the United States.
The Fenty Beauty founder said her family "broke up" because of her dad's struggles with addiction, and it took a while for her and her father to move past that.
"I repaired my relationship with my dad," Rihanna tearfully told Oprah Winfrey in a 2012 interview, "I was so angry at him. I was just angry about a lot of things from my childhood and I couldn't separate him as a husband from him as a father."
Rihanna said she came to realize that he was "probably one of the best fathers in the world."
"He taught me everything," she said. "And as awful as he was to my mom at times, it didn't compare to how great he was as a father. And I had to come to terms with that. And I was able to close that gap with him."
Years later, the two became involved in a legal dispute. Rihanna sued her father in 2019 for false advertising, false designation of origin and invasion of privacy—false light publicity.
In the lawsuit, obtained by E! News, she alleged that Ronald and his business partner "egregiously and fraudulently misrepresented to third parties and the public" that their company, Fenty Entertainment, was affiliated with her and had the authority to act on her behalf. In 2021, Rihanna filed to dismiss the lawsuit, the BBC reported.
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