Rihanna Is Ready to Confess

Okay, so it’s the night after the last day of Milan Fashion Week and I’m at a giant arena on the outskirts of Milan to interview my former boss, Rihanna, for our Spring cover story. I walked in and there were, like, 50 dancers rehearsing for a one-off private show she was doing in India later that week. Songs like “Work” and “We Found Love” were reverberating through the space in a really intense way that took me back to when I was her stylist. When you’re in an empty arena and the music is pumping like that, the whole place starts shaking and you realize the magnitude of megastardom—but I wasn’t stressed about it. I was just there to get this interview done. At 3 a.m. Rihanna and I ducked behind some lush curtains that opened up to a really comfortable backstage setup. We took off our shoes, got cozy, and for the next 90 minutes, she gave Interview her all
comfortable outfit to wear around them? What’s not going to feel uncomfortable on their face or on their body or make me feel like I can’t hold them properly?” Moms are lazy dressers in real life.

OTTENBERG: Right. Do you have racks of children’s clothes?

RIHANNA: I have racks, I have bags. They’re all sized and organized, and then whatever gets too small for RZA, I put into bins so that Riot can have them next. Riot is actually in all of RZA’s 1-year-old clothes already. He’s only six months. Everybody thinks Rocky dresses them because I dress them in Rocky outfits.

OTTENBERG: What was RZA’s first word?

RIHANNA: “Hey.”

OTTENBERG: Cool.

RIHANNA: I used to try to get his attention all the time, and I would say, “Hey, hey, hey.” And one day he said it back to me in the same melody and I kept singing it and he kept following it over and over again.

OTTENBERG: So cute.

RIHANNA: Super cute.

OTTENBERG: I can’t believe you have two babies.

RIHANNA: I can’t believe I have two babies.

OTTENBERG: I can’t believe I’m backstage with you at 3:30 in the morning and you have two babies.

RIHANNA: Mel Ottenberg, have you met me? That’s the usual.

OTTENBERG: No, no, no. I’m just shocked that we’re doing this interview here. I haven’t been backstage and I haven’t felt the reverberations of a stadium in so long, so it reminds me of when I first worked with you and how scary it all was. It’s exciting, but it’s not PTSD. It’s more like—

RIHANNA: It’s PTSD.

OTTENBERG: No, it’s not.

RIHANNA: We lost a diamond hoop on our first performance.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

RIHANNA: Did you have insurance for that one?

OTTENBERG: No, it wasn’t real.

RIHANNA: So why did you pass out over it?beat his ass sometimes, but he beats me most of the time.

OTTENBERG: Wait, so you guys were involved in some way before. Then when did you start going out, going out? 2012?

RIHANNA: No! We didn’t meet—

OTTENBERG: I think “Fashion Killa” is 2012.

RIHANNA: Go back to the VMAs.

OTTENBERG: Oh my god. The VMAs. Remember—

RIHANNA: He grabbed my ass! What year was that?

OTTENBERG: It was 2012; 2013 was the Diamonds [World] Tour.

RIHANNA: I’m bad with years, so I believe you. So that was the day that we thought we met. At rehearsal, so it was, like, manager to manager, client to client.

OTTENBERG: Right.

RIHANNA: So when he grabbed my ass that night, everybody thought I was about to—

OTTENBERG: That you guys were fucking.

RIHANNA: No, my team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a fucking mantle. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: Got it.

RIHANNA: But I was like,“Ah, nah.” That’s why everybody was like, “Oh my god. She likes him.”

OTTENBERG: Wait, were you guys dating when “Fashion Killa” happened?

RIHANNA: Hell no. He asked me to be in a video. Virgil [Abloh] shot that.

OTTENBERG: I never asked questions because it was, like, TMI.

RIHANNA: We saw fashion the same. We saw creative the same. We ended up in the same circles a lot. And past that, when we grew up, we ended up supporting each other’s brands and products and creative all the time. I would wear his shit, he would show up to my launches. But it wasn’t until the end of 2019—

OTTENBERG: Was it a DM, a text?
each other, to even know that we were ready.

OTTENBERG: But you were just together and you’re, like, “Oh, let’s fucking go”?

RIHANNA: I mean, we didn’t even really talk about it. There was no denying it. It was the best thing that ever happened to us. It just happened.

OTTENBERG: So good.

RIHANNA: I let god lead and just let go. Because in previous relationships, I tried and tried and tried my best, and you still feel like it’s not enough. So when someone sees you completely, and believes in you, and thinks you’re worthy of being the mother of their kids, it’s a great feeling. I felt the same about him. I knew he would be a great dad.

OTTENBERG: Sick. How many more kids do you want?

RIHANNA: As many as god wants me to have.

OTTENBERG: Okay. But more than two?

RIHANNA: I don’t know what god wants, but I would go for more than two. I would try for my girl. But of course if it’s another boy, it’s another boy.

OTTENBERG: Okay. What are you watching on TV?

RIHANNA: I don’t get to watch a lot of TV anymore, but Housewives is always my priority.

OTTENBERG: I was asked to be the bartender this week, but I’m in Milan.

RIHANNA: For Watch What Happens Live [With Andy Cohen]?

OTTENBERG: Yes
RIHANNA: Random ideas, quirky ideas, things that have nothing to do with me at all. I mean, I can’t tell you. The opps is watching.

OTTENBERG: Okay. I’ll let everyone else ask about that other stuff.

RIHANNA: [Laughs] What? The new album?

OTTENBERG: The new music, yeah. I’m like, these are the kind of questions