She found love in a hopeless place, a rude boy to make her feel like the only girl in the world. RihRock (?) is real. Rumors that Rihanna was dating rapper Rakim Mayers, a.k.a. A$AP Rocky, after splitting from ex Hassan Jameel were circulating for years thanks to their undeniable chemistry on and off the stage. And what started out as hopeful conjecture finally became a reality. In fact, just a few months after People reported in November 2020 that the pair were actually dating, A$AP Rocky referred to RiRi as “the love of my life.” It doesn’t get much more serious than that!
Oh, wait, it does: The couple revealed in early 2022 that they were expecting their first child, and after turning out maternity ’fits that truly changed the game, the pair welcomed their son in May that year. And a little more than a year later, a brother was added.
From her Super Bowl pregnancy reveals to epic date nights, here’s the complete relationship timeline of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s romance, with the most recent events up top.
2025
February 18, 2025: Rihanna accompanies Rocky to the LA courthouse where he is tried on two counts of felony assault. The couple celebrates after Rockys acquittal, with Rihanna sharing on Instagram, “The Glory belongs to God and God alone. Thankful, humbled by his mercy!”
The couple later tells Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, that they plan to name their next child after him.
The rapper was found not guilty of two counts of felony assault.
In an interview with Extra, Tacopina shares, “They grabbed me and they said, ‘Listen, our next baby A$AP Joe,’” he recalls. “I said, ‘I’m gonna hold you to that!’”
Rihanna, Rakim (Rocky’s real name), RZA, Riot, and…Joe? Love it, to be honest!
2023
August 3: Rihanna gives birth to her second child with Rocky, a baby boy named Riot Rose. Is his name a reference to Rocky’s song of the same name?
July: Rocky adds fuel to the fire regarding rumors that the couple is married when he releases the track “Riot,” featuring the lyrics “My wife is erotic, I’m smokin’ exotic (Woo, woo) / My whip is exotic, my crib is a cottage (Woo, woo, woo).” Rihanna gets two more shout-outs in the song with the lyrics “New collab' with my baby mom,” and “Pass on a sweetie, I got me a RiRi.”
June: Are these two husband and wife? Rocky calls Rihanna his “beautiful wife” while performing onstage at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival. We can neither confirm nor disprove! This same month, Rocky posts a series of candid, intimate family moments to celebrate Father’s Day.
May: In a bridal-ish getup (her) and kilt-over-jeans (him), the pair arrive quite, quite late to the Met Gala in NYC, which honored the work of longtime Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld. Afterward, they headed to an after-party with the most fashionable celebs around, and then a diner and were apparently out until 5 a.m. So New York.
Later, the tabloids dig up the big-brother-to-be’s name: RZA! RZA Athelston Mayers. Cool name for a cool dude, who turns one year old this month! Rocky commemorates the milestone on Insta, sharing the cutest pictures of the first year of RZA’s life.
Instagram content
March: Following her performance of “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the Oscars in California, Rihanna poses with her baby daddy for a sweet backstage photo.
February: During the Super Bowl halftime, the Fenty Beauty founder appears to be rocking a baby bump, and Rocky is the most adorable Instagram boyfriend in the stands. Look how proud he is!
X content
Following performance, reps for the singer confirm to The Hollywood Reporter that Rihanna is expecting her second child with A$AP Rocky. RiRi performed a medley of her greatest hits in a bright red jumpsuit over a spandex top, which seemed to show the Fenty founder sporting a baby bump, especially when she caressed her stomach while onstage.
The family of three (and a half) cover British Vogue, and Rih opens up about the head trip of new parenthood: “It’s everything. You really don’t remember life before, that’s the craziest thing ever…You literally try to remember it—and there are photos of my life before—but the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far. Because it doesn’t matter…You’re so paranoid,” she said. “Because you’re like: They trusted us to come home with this baby? This new life? With us?”
January: A$AP Rocky hypes up Rihanna ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show performance in February. “I'm so glad that my lady’s back making music again and whatnot, and getting back out there,” the rapper tells Apple Music (according to People). “The Super Bowl is huge, and her being the creative she is, she going to bring it, man. I’m excited. I’m more excited than everybody else, honestly.”
Also this month, the couple attended the Golden Globes red carpet in Los Angeles.
2022
May: Congrats! The couple welcome their first child, a baby boy, on May 13. They eventually reveal that when they first brought him home, the family didn’t have a nanny. “It was just us as parents and our baby. Man, you’re a zombie for the most part,” she recalled in a later interview. “I cannot believe it. 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. And oh my gosh, those first days are insane. You don’t sleep. At all. Not even if you wanted to.”
Also in May, Rocky released the music video for “D.M.B.,” which starred Rihanna. The singer wore a couple crochet bikinis for the appearance.
January: Rihanna and A$AP Rocky reveal on January 31 that they’ve reached a new milestone in their relationship: parents-to-be. The couple are photographed in New York City to debut Rihanna’s baby bump, thus confirming that they’re expecting their first child together.
2021
September: Rihanna and A$AP hit the red carpet together at the 2021 Met Gala in what might be called BlanketCore. Rihanna opts for an all-black ensemble by Balenciaga, while he goes for a multicolored number by Eli Russell Linnetz.
Later in the month the Fenty mogul reveals that she has no interest in consulting her boyfriend regarding her men’s fashion designs. “Are you kidding me? Do you know who I am? I’m a control freak,” Rihanna told People at the premiere of the Savage x Fenty Vol. 3 show. “Listen, he’s proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish and all of my designs.”
August: Rumors begin to swirl that an engagement could be imminent. “These two are so madly in love, and it’s true there’s a lot of buzz in their circle about an engagement being in the works,” a source tells Us Weekly in a new report. “Going by the hints Rocky’s been dropping, [it] may well happen soon, but there’s no pressure and what matters most to both of them is to keep building on this truly beautiful thing they’ve got going.”
July: By mid-July, these two can’t keep their hands off each other while filming together in New York City. Click here for photos.
June: Without speaking publicly on the matter, Rihanna engages in more PDA with the rapper in New York City. Click here for photos.
May: In GQ’s June cover story (published in May), the “Fuckin Problems” rapper confirms his relationship with Rihanna—who’s just been named a billionaire the month prior—for the first time, calling her “the love of my life” and “my lady.”
He also referred to Rihanna as “the one” while discussing why he favors monogamy to being single. “So much better when you got the one,” he says. “[Rihanna] amounts to probably, like, a million of the other ones. I think when you know, you know. She’s the one.”
2020
December: Nearly one month later, they are spotted kissing in Barbados, where they reportedly are spending the holidays with her family. “Spending Christmas together was an obvious step for Rihanna and A$AP,” a source tells ET. “They’ve known each other for so long as friends and in a work setting, which makes it so easy for them to get along, travel together, and be involved in each other’s lives to the full extent. They always have such a good time together and definitely seem in love.”
November: Relationship rumors pick up even more steam when the performers are seen with a group of friends in New York City. “They have always had amazing chemistry and Rihanna relates to A$AP and it feels natural, easy and fun,” a source tells Entertainment Tonight in November. “She feels very comfortable around him since they’ve known each other for such a long time and also feels a connection to him because his dad is from Barbados.” (Rihanna is from there as well!)
By late November, sources tell People the pair are officially dating.
August: In July, Rihanna taps the rapper to star in her Fenty Skin campaign, but their chemistry really comes through during a couple of flirty videos for Vogue and GQ in August.
At one point during the Vogue video titled “Face to Face,” A$AP Rocky asks Rihanna what her skin type is. “My skin type is just as complicated as men are,” she replies. “Y’all always try to say women are complicated? It’s y’all!” When she asks him the same question, he answers, “Handsome.”
They keep the flirty vibes going during their GQ video, especially when A$AP Rocky is asked about the “hardest part” of working with Rihanna. “I think the hardest part about working with you is not goofin’ off and laughing the whole time. Like this shit is comedy,” he says. “That’s the hardest part. You know, people be so cool it’s hard not to, not to laugh. That’s all. But it was fun. The hardest part is not having too much fun. You just forget that it’s still work at the end of the day.”
2019
The Fenty mogul and the rapper hit the red carpet at The British Fashion Awards in London. It’s so obviously and completely on!
2018
Sitting side by side at the Louis Vuitton show during Paris Fashion Week in May, they exchange tender looks. Please note the pearl necklaces; Rocky is no stranger to gender-bent dressing, something of an anomaly in the hip-hop and rap world.
2013
A$AP Rocky is an opening act during Rihanna’s Diamonds World Tour. We stan a man who can open for a gal.
Rocky also drops his song “Fashion Killa,” in which he name drops Rihanna in the lyric: “And if you is a rider, we'll go shoppin’ like mañana/ Her attitude Rihanna, she get it from her mama.”
2012
The pair look super comfortable and intimate together during their 2012 MTV Video Music Awards performance. According to Rihanna in Interview, she didn’t even mind when he suddenly grabbed her butt on live television, even though they’d only just met.
“He grabbed my ass!” Rihanna recalled. “So that was the day that we thought we met. At rehearsal, so it was, like, manager to manager, client to client…” Then later, when A$AP got handsy on stage, Rihanna said, “My team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a fucking mantle…But I was like, ‘Ah, nah.’ That’s why everybody was like, ‘Oh my god. She likes him.’”
Their friendship is never in question even as they each cycle through other relationships.
This post will be updated.
