ByLILLIAN GISSEN and CHARLIE LANKSTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Rihanna may be one of the biggest stars in the world, but it took a lot for her to get there.
The top-charting artist had a difficult childhood – growing up with an abusive father who left the family at 14, forcing her to care of her siblings while her mom worked to keep the family afloat.
Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, Rihanna was the daughter of an accountant named Monica and a warehouse supervisor named Ronald.
She grew up in a three-bedroom house in Saint Michael, Barbados, with her two brothers, two half-sisters, and a half-brother. As a child, she helped her dad sell clothes in a stall on the street.
Rihanna grew up with an abusive father who left at 14, forcing her to care for her siblings while her mom worked. She is pictured as a teen with her mom
Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, Rihanna was the daughter of an accountant named Monica and a warehouse supervisor named Ronald. She is pictured throughout her childhood
She later said that her father physically abused her mother and that he suffered from alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction.
‘I hated him. Then, one of my school friends, who I was very close to, she knew, and she always used to say, “You can’t hate your father,”‘ Rihanna later recalled to the Guardian, adding that he was the one who taught her how to swim, ride a bike, and the other milestones as a kid.
She was signed by Def Jam Recordings in 2005 after record producer Evan Rogers discovered her and sent Def Jam’s president, Jay-Z, her demo. She is pictured as a kid
‘You have to love him, at the end of the day, because he’s your father. So I listened, as much as it took out of me.’
She also said on Oprah, ‘He taught me everything. As awful as he was to my mom at times, it didn’t compare to how great he was as a father.’
Her parents split when she was 14, and she later recalled staying home to watch her siblings, specifically her younger brother, while her single mom worked to support the family.
‘My mom was a single mom, so she worked a lot. She was really never home – I mean, she was home, but it would be after work, late at night, so I would take care of [my brother],’ she said to the Guardian. ‘He was my best friend. He thought I was his mom.’
During school, she was an army cadet in a sub-military program, and musician Shontelle was actually her drill sergeant.
‘It wasn’t compulsory or anything. But picture me and Rihanna in combat boots and fatigues crawling through mud and things like that,’ Shontelle told BBC years later.
In 2003, while she was still in high school, Rihanna decided to form a musical trio with two of her classmates.
After landing an audition with Rogers, she instantly blew him away, with him later saying, ‘The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist.’
‘We sang as a group,’ Rihanna recalled to the Guardian, ‘And then we sang individually, and Evan expressed an interest in helping me get a solo deal.
Her debut single, Pon de Replay, came out in May 2005 and went to the number two spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. She is pictured in the music video
‘It was a really difficult place to be, because obviously I didn’t want to hurt my friends’ feelings, I didn’t want to betray [them], but it was a reality. We had auditioned together, and individually, and that was it.’
He signed her to his and Carl Sturken’s production company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions, and flew her to the U.S. to record some demos, which he sent to Def Jam Recordings.
Initially, it was said that Jay-Z – who was the president and CEO of Def Jam – felt Pon de Replay was ‘too big’ for Rihanna when he first heard the demo, but after she sang it for him in-person in early 2005, he signed her immediately.
She then moved to America and recorded her first album, Music of the Sun. Her debut single, Pon de Replay, came out in May 2005 and went to the number two spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
America’s youngest self-made female billionaire: The bulk of the popstar’s money comes from her 50 per cent stake her cosmetics line Fenty Beauty and her $270 million stake in her Savage X Fenty lingerie line
The album hit stands in August of that year and received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, selling over two million copies worldwide.
Her second album then came out in April 2006, entitled A Girl Like Me, which charted top 10 in 13 different countries.
She then continued to make music – dropping albums Good Girl Gone Bad in May 2007 and Rated R in November 2009.
In October 2010, she switched managers and joined Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Management. Her fifth album, Loud, came out in November 2010 and also had much success.
She then released Talk That Talk in November 2011, Unapologetic in November 2012, and Anti in January 2016.
Over the years, she landed the top spot on the charts many times – earning 14 number one singles – sold out numerous world tours, and collaborated with tons of big artists like Eminem, Shakira, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, and Britney Spears.
Throughout her career, she has received numerous accolades for her music, including nine Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 13 American Music Awards, and eight People’s Choice Awards.
In addition to singing, she is also an actress and has graced the screen in a few big movies like Bring It On: All or Nothing in 2006, the war movie Battleship, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (alongside Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne), and the heist comedy Ocean’s 8.
She also starred in the fifth season of Bates Motel and voiced the main character in the DreamWorks animated flick Home (which also starred Jim Parsons and Jennifer Lopez).
She put her music career on pause in 2017 to focus on her business ventures, launching an enormous cosmetics company called Fenty Beauty.
A year later, she expanded the company with her Savage X Fenty lingerie brand, which sells underwear that comes in a variety of sizes to fit all kinds of people.
She has also released a luxury fashion house called Fenty and a skin care brand called Fenty Skin, and there’s rumors that she’s currently gearing up to release a line of hair-care products called Fenty Hair.
In 2021, Rihanna officially became a billionaire – making her the richest female musician in the world and the second richest female entertainer after Oprah Winfrey.
The following year, she de-throned fellow A-lister Kim Kardashian, 41, to earn Forbes’ title of America’s youngest self-made female billionaire, after amassing an impressive net worth of $1.4 billion.
It was claimed that the bulk of the popstar’s money comes not from her singing career, but from her 50 per cent stake in her acclaimed cosmetics line Fenty Beauty – a joint venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH – which is now worth $2.8 billion in total.
Between that and her $270 million stake in her wildly successful Savage X Fenty lingerie line, combined with the profit she has made from her 16-year recording career as a chart-topping singer and actress, all make up the hitmaker’s massive wealth.
Her only solo music in the last seven years came in October when she released Lift Me Up in tribute to late actor Chadwick Boseman for the Marvel film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the singer was nominated for an Academy Award.
