Rihanna has been in the news a lot lately – not just because of her Super Bowl half-time performance on the weekend, but also because of all the talk about the superstar and motherhood.
During her performance, Rihanna’s round belly had fans speculating that she was expecting her second child. The news was later – a revelation that overshadowed the Super Bowl game itself (at least outside of North America).
The singer was also the , along with her partner, A$AP Rocky, and their nine-month-old son.
“Oh, my God, it’s legendary. It’s everything,” Rihanna said in the accompanying interview about becoming a mum for the first time.
She went on to talk about how she barely remembered her life from before. “You literally try to remember it – and there are photos of my life before – but the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far, because…” she told Vogue. “Because it doesn’t matter.”
Motherhood is clearly at the forefront of the nine-time Grammy Award winner’s mind. Her performance at the Super Bowl was hailed as ground-breaking because, as writer Evette Dionne , it “embodied the notion that working mothers can still command the spotlight while retaining their sexiness and sexuality and asserting their agency”.
Dionne goes on to write: “It’s telling that we know nothing about Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s first child. We know he’s been born, but his name has been withheld."
In the Vogue interview, for example, Rihanna's son is referred to as “Baby” by not only the singer and her partner, but by everyone in Rihanna's entourage. "Rihanna, Rocky, their families and teams are so consistent in calling him ‘baby’ in my presence I do half wonder if his name might actually be Baby," Giles Hattersley wrote in the Vogue piece.
Rihanna is famously known for maintaining her privacy. Her Vogue interview is another example of how the singer carefully manages the release of the information she wants to share. So, while she doesn’t disclose her son’s name, we learn more about how Rihanna is embracing motherhood.
It seems much of what she’s experiencing as a first-time mum is a universal feeling for parents, no matter where they come from.
We came home, cold turkey, had no one. It was just us as parents and our baby
“Essentially, from one person I became two. You walk into the hospital as a couple and leave as a family of three. It’s nuts,” she said. “And oh, my gosh, those first days are insane. You don’t sleep. At all. Not even if you wanted to. 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.”
Any parent of a young child would recognise this feeling of operating on a mixture of barely any sleep and caffeine. The fact that despite being an with all the resources at her disposal, Rihanna decided to do this without any help is a testament to how much she wanted to be an active part of her son’s life.
“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?” she told Vogue with a laugh. “No doctors, no nurses, we’re just… going home?”
But the universal parental experience ends there, as Rihanna revealed how, after spending a few weeks cocooned as a family, her partner A$AP Rocky had to fly out for his Europe tour, and she and their son joined him later.
While Rihanna and A$AP Rocky may share a lot of the feelings experienced by the average new parent, they are still two of the most famous people in the world
And, as became apparent during the interview, while Rihanna and A$AP Rocky may share a lot of the feelings experienced by the average new parent, they are still two of the most famous people in the world. While snapping their Vogue cover shoot on a beach, paparazzi were spotted, and the celebrity couple and baby were quickly shuttled back to their trailer.
“Throw me to the wolves. Do what you want with me. But he doesn’t have a say in any of this. We’ve been protecting him thus far and you don’t have any consent to be posting photos or selling photos of my child, a minor. Get the hell out of here with that,” Rihanna said. Even though most of us won’t have paparazzi following our every move, we recognise the protective instincts we have about our children.
During the Vogue interview, Rihanna remained coy about having more children. But as the world soon discovered, the singer is clearly enjoying motherhood so much she’s pregnant again.
Whether that means a delay to her much-promised return to music? Only time will tell.
is an author and freelance writer. Her debut novel, , is out now through Penguin Australia.
