Ronald Fenty, the father of global music artist and Fenty Beauty Founder, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 70.
The news was first reported by Starcom Network, a media outlet based in Barbados, Rihanna’s country of birth.
Fenty reportedly passed away early Saturday morning, May 31, following what has been described as a “brief illness.”
The official cause of death has not been released.
Sources told Starcom that members of the Fenty family were present in California during Ronald Fenty’s final days.
On Wednesday, May 28, Rajad Fenty, one of Ronald’s sons, was photographed arriving at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Ronald Fenty shared three children with his ex-wife Monica Braithwaite: Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty), Rajad, and Rorrey Fenty.
The couple separated in 2002. Rihanna was 14 at the time, and her career was just beginning to emerge internationally.
The father-daughter relationship was strained much through her entire career. In a 2011 Vogue interview, Rihanna described their relationship as “really strange,” speaking on his behavior in the aftermath of her 2009 assault by Chris Brown.
“You grow up with your father… and then he does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it,” she told the magazine.
She added, “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.”
Despite this reconciliation, an issue resurfaced in 2019 when Rihanna filed a lawsuit against her father.
She alleged that he had used her name and brand without permission, including the creation of a company called Fenty Entertainment, through which he posed as her manager.
However, the case was dropped in 2021, just weeks before trial.
Ronald later claimed that they had resolved their differences.
In February 2023, Ronald Fenty spoke to TMZ, expressing excitement about Rihanna’s growing family. “I’m over the moon,” he said, referring to Rihanna’s second pregnancy with rapper A$AP Rocky. “I can’t wait to be a part of the baby’s life.”
He also told Page Six that Rihanna had brought her son RZA to Barbados twice, and described her as “a very overprotective mother.”
The singer and A$AP Rocky are currently expecting their third child, a pregnancy Rihanna revealed earlier in May 2025 at the Met Gala.
Who is Ronald Fenty?
Ronald Fenty was born and raised in Barbados, where he and Monica Braithwaite raised their family in Bridgetown.
Rihanna lived there until she moved to the United States at the age of 16.
Their family home was on a street now known as Rihanna Drive.
In addition to his children with Braithwaite, Ronald Fenty had three other children: Samantha, Kandy, and Jamie from previous relationships.
As of Saturday, May 31, no funeral arrangements or public memorial plans have been announced.
Family members remain in California while Rihanna has maintained public silence regarding her father’s passing.
