Rihanna is making sure her kids experience the kind of childhood her father gave her.
While walking the red carpet at the Smurfs premiere in Los Angeles on Sunday (July 13), the Grammy-winning singer and soon-to-be mother of three opened up about how her late father, Ronald Fenty, continues to influence the way she parents. She spoke candidly with Entertainment Tonight about the adventurous spirit she hopes to pass down to her children, thanks to her dad.
“Listen, I’ve always wanted that, and I’ve always dreamed of what type of grandfather he would be to them because of the favorite parts of my dad, you know?” the Barbados native said when asked if her children got to meet Ronald. “I think it prepared me for having two boys, really. The adventurous side of me, the outside side of me, the daredevil — it’s how I want to raise them. I want them to be outside and in nature. No, like, tablet babies.”
When asked if her dad inspired that mindset, she replied, “Oh, for sure. That was the funnest part of my life, my childhood. Just running around outside, barefoot, free. You don’t get to do that anymore.”
Rih’s two sons, RZA, 3, and Riot Rose, 1, attended the premiere with their mom, who wore a mermaid-style gown that showed off her baby bump.
As previously reported by REVOLT, Ronald died in May at age 70. The cause of death included respiratory failure, pancreatic cancer, aspiration pneumonia, and renal complications. He was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles shortly before his passing.
The father of six had a complicated relationship with Rihanna, but the two reconciled. In a 2012 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she reflected, “I couldn’t separate him as a husband from him as a father… He taught me everything, and as awful as he was to my mom, at times, it didn’t compare to how great he was as a father. I had to come to terms with that, and I was able to close that gap with him.”
Her words at the Smurfs premiere made it clear that his presence still looms large in her life and in how she’s raising the next generation! Rest in peace, Mr. Fenty.