Since announcing her pregnancy with a series of eye-catching photos, Rihanna has continued to turn heads with her bold maternity style.
“I’m hoping that we were able to redefine what’s considered ‘decent’ for pregnant women,” the superstar singer and fashion mogul tells Vogue of her provocative pregnancy looks. “My body is doing incredible things right now, and I’m not going to be ashamed of that. This time should feel celebratory. Because, why should you be hiding your pregnancy?”
Rihanna opens up in Vogue‘s May cover story about expecting her first child with partner A$AP Rocky as well as what she’s looking forward to (and isn’t planning) as she becomes a mom.
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Consistent with her sartorial embrace of her pregnancy, Rihanna seems to be in good spirits in her third trimester.
“None of the dials are turned down,” she tells Vogue of her life now, adding, “I think I even say yes to more now because I know it will be different on the other side of this.”
“At first I expected some magical change, but really I remain who I am,” she says.
Later in the cover story, which also features several high-fashion photos of Rihanna baring her baby bump, Vogue reports that she hasn’t had morning sickness and she’s been able to handle mood swings with more ease than she had anticipated.
“I was bracing myself for something insane because I knew I wouldn’t have my usual coping mechanism: I can’t just go and smoke a joint right now,” she says. “But I was pleasantly surprised that I’ve been able to manage.”
Indeed, Rihanna seems to be approaching her pregnancy and upcoming motherhood with both a mix of casual acceptance and excitement.
“As much as it’s happening, it’s also not happening,” she says of her pregnancy. “Sometimes I’ll walk past my reflection and be like, ‘Oh shit!’”
And as for whether she and Rocky were planning to have a baby, she suggests they weren’t that calculating.
“I wouldn’t say planning. But certainly not planning against it. I don’t know when I ovulate or any of that type of shit. We just had fun,” she tells Vogue. “And then it was just there on the test. I didn’t waste any time. I called him inside and showed him. Then I was in the doctor’s office the next morning and our journey began.”
Rihanna also opens up about how she and Rocky got together, saying it took time for them to become more than friends.
“People don’t get out of the friend zone very easily with me,” she says, explaining that the two got closer during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “And I certainly took a while to get over how much I know him and how much he knows me, because we also know how much trouble we can land each other in.”
As the pair head toward their new life as parents, Rocky has met Rihanna’s mom, who quickly warmed to him, according to Vogue, and they have talked about where they’ll raise their kid and who will help.
“Rocky asked me recently if I had a dream place [to raise their child], where would it be? I told him home, Barbados. I always imagined it being that way. But realistically it probably won’t be,” says the Barbados native.
While she’s reluctantly put a night nurse on hold, she’s thinking her mom and Rocky’s mom will take charge. And Rihanna is aware she’s not sure how she’ll be able to balance her many business pursuits.
“Balance is one of my biggest challenges and always has been,” she says. “And now there’s another human being coming into play, it changes what that means again. Still, I have businesses that aren’t going to run themselves. My mom handled the three of us with not even close to the amount of resources that I have, so I can absolutely do it. What it looks like? I’m not sure.”
While she’s kept fans waiting for the follow-up to 2016’s Anti, she’s still interested in making music but is not divulging too much about her upcoming creative endeavors.
Still, she did offer this tease: “I’m looking at my next project completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before. I think this way suits me better, a lot better. It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”
