It’s been almost nine months since Rihanna and A$AP Rocky welcomed their son–and everything leading up to now has been an absolute whirlwind when it comes to this superstar fam.
Everyone remembers where they were when they saw *those* photos in January 2022. You know the ones. Rihanna was dressed in a stunning pink coat that opened around her stomach, revealing her little baby bump, while A$AP Rocky held her hand. The pics were shot in Harlem, New York City (where A$AP grew up!), but they very quickly made their way around the globe.
Rihanna has been prepping for the Super Bowl halftime performance these days. But when she was first asked to do the event a few months back, the singer apparently “wasn’t sure” about doing such a big performance so close to the birth of her son. “I’m three months postpartum, should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,” she explained of her thought process at a recent Apple press conference. Ultimately though, she decided to do it. “When you become a mom, something happens where you feel like you can take on the world–like you can do anything,” she said.
The Halftime show will be her first show in seven years–but she said “it’s important for my son to see that,” she said. Aww!
Here's everything to know about Rihanna's only child:
Rihanna has been working on work-life balance.
Leading up to the Super Bowl, Rihanna’s schedule has obviously been packed. “The balance [between work and life] is almost impossible because no matter how you look at it, work is always gonna be something that’s going to rob you from time with your child. That’s the currency now,” she said at the Apple Music press conference.
Now, anything Rihanna does professionally “has to be worth it” if it means taking time away from her son, according to the singer. So, the Halftime show will def be quite the performance.
Rihanna and A$AP have a long history.
IKYMI, the origins of their love story, A$AP and Rihanna were, at first, just friends. For years. But as of November 2020, they were officially a couple, a source told PEOPLE. A$AP referred to Rihanna as “the love of my life” in a May 2021 interview with GQ. He continued to say, “I think when you know, you know. She's the One.” I could cry.
“People don’t get out of the friend zone very easily with me,” Rihanna told Vogue in April 2022. “And I certainly took a while to get over how much I know him and how much he knows me, because we also know how much trouble we can land each other in.”
A$AP was always open to having kids. “If that’s in my destiny, absolutely,” he told GQ back in 2021. “I think I’d be an incredible, remarkably, overall amazing dad. I would have a very fly child. Very.”
Rihanna approached her pregnancy with the same kind of openness. “Planning? I wouldn’t say planning. But certainly not planning against it,” Rihanna told Vogue.
RiRi also was not letting social norms get in the way of her decision to start a family. “I always thought it would be marriage first, then a baby, but who the f**k says it has to be that way. I’m certainly not gonna let that get in the way of me being a mom,” she said later in the Vogue interview.
And of course, they have the sweetest relationship. “What I love the most about us? Transparency with everything: how we’re feeling, what our goals are, what our fears and insecurities are,” she continued. “The vulnerability to be able to say what you feel about each other.”
Rihanna and A$AP celebrated the baby with friends and family in their own way.
Because it’s just like RiRi to forgo a traditional baby shower and instead celebrate with…a rave.
“No brunch, no blush tones. And no animal-shaped nothing,” the 34-year-old singer and business mogul told Vogue in April 2022. “I mean it’s lit for a lot of people—I’ve even planned a couple of baby showers like that myself—it’s just not right for me. Personally, I want a party. I want everyone to be plastered and crawling out.”
And she wanted to include her man. “Rihanna didn’t want a shower for just the ladies, they’re in this together, it was always going to be a joint celebration,” a source told ET. “They flew out some family and friends from Barbados,” they said. The guest list was “very intimate.”
But of course, they kept the event extremely private. Guests weren’t allowed to take any photos or videos, as reported by Hip Hollywood, and they were even asked to keep their phones in pouches when they arrived to prevent phone usage, per ET. They were, however, allowed (and asked) to wear bright neon clothing, which was super on-theme.
The best part? The T-shirts gifted to guests that read: “I Went 2 Rih & Rocky’s Rave Shower And All I Got Was This Amazing Shirt.” One word: obsessed.
Rihanna's baby was born on May 13, 2022.
Rihanna and A$AP’s baby boy was born on May 13, 2022 in Los Angeles. Yup, this 9-month old baby is a certified Taurus. And if I’m doing the math correctly, he was probably conceived around August 2021.
Rihanna's baby’s name still hasn’t been revealed yet.
A$AP and Rihanna only shared the name with close family members, a source told Us Weekly: “They are keeping it a secret until they’re ready to share it with the world.”
But the couple wanted the name to have ties to both of their families. “Rihanna wants her Barbados heritage honored when she names her child, [as well as] A$AP’s roots,” a source told Us Weekly. “They want both of their cultures included. It is very important to them to keep where they are from passed down to their child.”
Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty and A$AP’s real name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers, so maybe their kid’s name begins with an ‘R.’ But in November 2022, she was seen wearing a necklace with a 'D' on it, leaving fans to wonder if that's her baby's initial, per Hollywood Life. (Remember, RiRi hinted at her baby's birthday when she was spotted with a charm bracelet with a May birthstone, per Complex.)
When asked why the couple still hasn't shared any deets on their baby's name five months in, Rihanna told The Washington Post, “We just didn’t get around to it yet, really. We’ve just been living."
"But I guess there’s a certain freedom that comes with kind of just like getting it out there,” she added.
Rihanna's baby's face has been revealed.
And, spoiler alert: he's freakin' adorable! Rihanna posted a TikTok on Dec. 17, 2022, of her baby riding around in a car, Rihanna was the first to debut imagery of her kid to the public, and he looks like a perfect combo of both of his parents. He's making funny faces and noises as she giggles at him.
"You tryna get Mommy's phone?" she asks him as he reaches for her. A source for PEOPLE confirmed that they were home at Los Angeles at the time, and that same day, they brought the baby to the beach for a photoshoot in matching outfits, per TMZ.
As if it wasn't already obvious, Rihanna told Entertainment Tonight that her son is a "happy baby," and that mornings are her favorite part of the day. "Oh my God, the mornings, like, seeing his morning face," she said. "Seeing a baby with, like, little bags and waking up and they're just, like, startled. They're trying to figure out where they're at. It's the cutest."
If that wasn't cute enough, he's also in a "cuddly stage," Rihanna told PEOPLE in November of 2022 while on set of her Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 show. "He is funny, he's happy—and he's fat!" she said. "It's a real cuddly stage right now."
Rihanna's baby has multiple caretakers.
She considered hiring a night nurse to help out early on, but her friends urged her not to, she told Vogue. Instead, there was another special person who'd be in charge. “I’m sure that will be helpful, but they’re going to have to fight my mom, because I can’t imagine anyone telling her how to put her grandkid to bed,” RiRi said.
It’s since been confirmed that “they have some help,” a source told Us Weekly.
As for where she’s raising the baby, it’s a difficult decision. “Rocky asked me recently if I had a dream place, where would it be? I told him home, Barbados. I always imagined it being that way. But realistically it probably won’t be,” she added.
Rihanna is a super hands-on mom.
“She won’t want to leave her baby’s side,” a source told Us Weekly. And she does want to take him to Barbados soon to meet the whole fam.
“Right now, they are just spending precious time together with their little bundle of love,” they said. “Rihanna has always said she wants to be hands-on. She’s a very caring person … very nurturing.”
And it turns out, Rihanna is noticing a lot more similarities with her own mom now that she's got her own child.
"It is weird," she told E! News on the red carpet for her Savage x Fenty Vol. 4 runway show. "Even the little things that annoy me about her, I do it. I literally make all of the same faces. I say the same things. I clear my throat the same way. I move my mouth the same way."
In March of 2022, she told Elle magazine that she would be "psycho" about being protective over her kids, à la RHONJ's Teresa Giudice. "She will flatten you about those kids," she said. "And that resonates with me a lot because I feel like that's the type of mom I'm going to be."
Rihanna and A$AP love being parents.
Together, the couple is loving their first year of parenting, a source told PEOPLE in January 2023. "Rihanna loves being a mom," the insider said. "She is obsessed with her baby boy."
It seems A$AP really loves being a father, too. “I’m a member of our club now, like the dad club. You see a dad, you see me. I’m playing on, I’m a full dad now,” he told Zach Lowe in January 2023. “Being outside and working and being creative, it drives more energy for you…to think and soak things up like a sponge now that I’m a dad, because I have a whole ‘nother perspective. But it honestly helps you get home to your family and get home to your baby. And I can’t even explain it, man. You come home to heaven every day. I’m so thankful. God is good, man.”
Now, to the important stuff: Rihanna Jr. is already super stylish
The first thing she bought was a mini bathrobe, which was a gift from her hotel in Paris, according to Vogue. But of course, Rihanna also did some shopping in Paris at Bonpoint and Baby Dior, as well as in Los Angeles at Couture Kids, naturally, in the spring before the baby arrived, per PEOPLE.
Her own baby has inspired her to make baby clothes for Fenty, too. "I always thought doing kid stuff would be cliché and the obvious thing to do when you have a baby. It's, like, the obvious next step," she told Entertainment Tonight. "But when I went shopping, that's when I realized like, okay, maybe I need to start making the stuff that I want my kids to wear because it's hard! I got my own ideas."
I have no doubt that the baby will be ~spoiled~ to say the least. I mean, with her net worth, that child can probably have anything he wants.
Diversity and versatility will be major values in Rihanna and A$AP's household.
“I will always remind my children to never lose their imagination, even as adults, no matter what,” A$AP told Dazed in an interview in May 2022. “I hope to raise open-minded children. Not people who discriminate. And I’m not trying to describe a saint, but realistically, I just want a cool child with cool parents.”
There’s no doubt in my head that this kid will be the coolest ever. “Things like diversity and versatility are important, and they’ll be embedded in the household,” A$AP also told Dazed.
Rihanna wants more kids.
Back in March 2020, the “Kiss It Better” singer told Vogue UK that she wants “three or four” kids. And Rihanna said she was planning to have them with or without a partner: “I feel like society makes me want to feel like, ‘Oh, you got it wrong…’ They diminish you as a mother if there’s not a dad in your kids’ lives,” she said. “But the only thing that matters is happiness, that’s the only healthy relationship between a parent and a child. That’s the only thing that can raise a child truly, is love.”
And...more babies could be on the way, according to a source close to the couple. “They want a big family for sure. Rihanna loved being pregnant and fully embraced her pregnancy body,” the source told Us Weekly.
All I have to say is that I already love watching this kid grow up.
Olivia Evans (she/her) is an editorial assistant at Women’s Health. Her work has previously appeared in The Cut and Teen Vogue. She loves covering topics where culture and wellness intersect. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, running, and watching rom-coms.
Addison Aloian is the associate health & fitness editor at Women’s Health, where she writes and edits across the health, weight loss, and fitness verticals. She’s also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). In her free time, you can find her lifting weights at the gym, running on the West Side Highway in New York City—she recently completed her first half-marathon—and watching (and critiquing!) the latest movies that have garnered Oscars buzz. In addition to Women's Health, her work has also appeared in Allure, StyleCaster, L'Officiel USA, V Magazine, VMAN, and more.
