Pop singer Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty, died Saturday morning at 70. The patriarch passed away in Los Angeles following a “brief illness,” although the precise cause of death was not immediately disclosed, Starcom Network News first reported. Rihanna, who was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, had a complicated relationship with her father due to his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. He and her mother, Monica Braithwaite, divorced when Rihanna was 14. In a 2011 interview with Vogue, Rihanna called the father-daughter relationship “really strange” and said that he has done things “so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it.” But in 2012, Rihanna said that the two had “repaired” their relationship and, despite often being “awful” to her mom, “It didn’t compare to how great he was as a father.” Prior to his death, Fenty was at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where his son, Rajad Fenty, visited him this week. Rihanna has not publicly commented on her father’s passing. The tragic passing comes as Rihanna expects her third child with longtime boyfriend A$AP Rocky.
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