Rihanna has opened up about her relationship with A$AP Rocky and said he was in the “friend zone” for years prior to them dating.
In a cover interview with US Vogue, the singer revealed that while she may have had a soft spot for the rapper upon their first encounter in 2012, their relationship only became more serious over the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Fenty Beauty-owner, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, said: “I just feel like I can do any part of life by his side.”
The pair are thought to have first met in when they collaborated on a remix of her song, ‘Cockiness’, and shared the stage for a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards a decade ago. During the show, A$AP Rocky – who’s real name is Rakim Mayers – danced very closely with the singer.
On the encounter, Rihanna said: “He grabbed my ass on stage. That was not part of the rehearsal! I was like, ‘what are you doing!?’”
While her team reportedly braced themselves for the singer to be upset about the incident, she let it go. “My manager was like ‘Oh, God, she must like this guy a little bit’,” she said. “She never lets this shit slide.”
After meeting, Rocky joined Rihanna on her ‘Diamonds’ world tour in 2013 yet the pair both went on to have separate, high-profile relationships.
Rihanna has dated rapper Drake and was in a long-term relationship with billionaire businessman Hassan Jameel, while Rocky reportedly dated model Kendall Jenner.
“People don’t get out of the friend zone very easily with me,” the beauty-mogul said. “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.”
The singer said she eventually let her guard down with Rocky and over time spent together during coronavirus lockdowns, he ‘became her family’.
The pair went on a road-trip between Los Angeles and New York during the summer of 2020, where Rihanna cooked for them with a “janky grill from Walmart” which she still owns, and Rocky would tie-dye T-shirts.
She said: “I love the simple things but also the grand adventures. There’s no pretentious my-brand-your-brand bullshit, it’s just us living.”
The couple then visited Rihanna’s home nation of Barbados together during the Christmas period of that year, where Rocky met the singer’s ‘hard to please’ mother.
“My mother has a really good read on people,” she said. “She observes first and then she’ll move slowly. I guess I’m like that too. There are some guys that I’ve dated that she won’t even look at to this day. But she was charmed by him from the jump.”
The couple made their red-carpet debut at 2021’s Met Gala and announced Rihanna’s pregnancy in January this year.
On what she loves most about their relationship, Rihanna said: “Transparency with everything - how we’re feeling, what our goals are, what our fears and insecurities are. The vulnerability to be able to say what you feel about each other.”
