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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Meredith Clark

From friends to soulmates: A timeline of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s relationship after singer announces pregnancy

AFP via Getty Images

Rihanna is expecting her first child with A$AP Rocky. The singer, 33, and her rapper boyfriend, 33, were photographed in New York City over the weekend, where Rihanna proudly debuted her baby bump in a long pink unbuttoned jacket.

The announcement is a sweet surprise for Rihanna fans, who have been following the couple since they first got together in November 2020. While the Diamonds singer and rapper have been an item for almost two years, the couple has sparked romance rumours throughout the last decade.

Here’s a complete timeline of Rihanna and ASAP Rocky’s relationship.

Before the pair got together, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky worked together on multiple collaborations. In 2011, Rihanna released a remix of her song Cockiness (I Love It) featuring A$AP Rocky, which appears on her album, Talk That Talk. The two performed the song at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2012. A year later, Rihanna enlisted the rapper to open for her on the Diamonds World Tour.

The friends were romantically linked in 2019 when Rihanna and A$AP Rocky posed together on the red carpet at the British Fashion Awards. Rihanna even documented the event on Instagram, where she thanked A$AP Rocky for supporting her Fenty brand. “And thank you @asaprocky for representing us on the carpet and always being so supportive of @Fenty !!” she captioned the post.

In 2020, Rihanna split from her boyfriend of three years, Hassan Jameel. Almost immediately, rumours swirled that A$AP Rocky and the singer were dating. Speculation began after a source reported to The Sun that the two shared a hotel suite during a trip to New York. “However, Rihanna is reluctant to put a label on it as it’s so soon after Hassan,” the source said. Reports at the time also said that it was just casual between the two and the newly-single Rihanna was just having fun. That July, she featured A$AP Rocky in her Fenty Skin campaign, and the duo talked skincare to Vogue.

However, by December 2020, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were reportedly “inseparable,” with an insider telling People that the couple had become inseparable since confirming their relationship in November 2020. "It’s a new relationship, but they both seem very into it,” the source said. Things reportedly became more serious in Barbados, where the couple spent Christmas together and A$AP reportedly met Rihanna’s family.

A$AP Rocky opened up about his relationship with Rihanna in a May 2021 profile for GQ. In the interview, Rocky called her the love of his life and the One. “She amounts to probably, like, a million of the other ones,” the rapper said. A$AP Rocky also revealed that, for the first time since 2013, the two went on tour again, only this time it was a road trip. The couple commandeered a massive tour bus and drove from LA to NYC, stopping at Texas, Tennessee, and a few national parks.

A$AP Rocky even predicted his future when he talked about fatherhood. “I think I’d be an incredible, remarkably, overall amazing dad,” he told GQ. “I would have a very fly child. Very.”

The two hit the Met Gala red carpet together in September 2021 where they officially made their red carpet debut. Rihanna, the queen of the Met Gala, wore a black ruffle dress from Balenciaga, and her new beau dressed in a red, yellow, blue, green and floral patterned blanket by ERL designer Eli Russell Linnetz.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky rang in the new year together and were spotted multiple times in New York City throughout January 2022 - with photos showing the pair grabbing dinner, holding hands, and bundling up in baggy clothes.

However, Rihanna recently denied rumours that she was pregnant in a direct message to a fan on Instagram, but the internet was not convinced after a video surfaced last week of the singer visiting a Sephora in New York, in which fans claimed she appeared to be strategically hiding her baby bump.

Throughout the last ten years, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s relationship has grown from “will they, won’t they” to The One.

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