“People don’t get out of the friend zone very easily with me,” she said. “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 mentioned before, the couple has been friends for many years. They collaborated on the “Cockiness (Love It)” remix in 2012 and she was his muse in his 2013 “Fashion Killa” music video.

Rihanna recalled the moment they performed the “Cockiness (Love It)” remix at the 2012 VMAs, in which her manager noticed there may have been some chemistry then. “He grabbed my ass on stage. That was not part of the rehearsal!” she said. “I was like, Whatare you doing!? My manager was like, Oh, God, she must like this guy a little bit. She never lets this shit slide.”

Fast-forward to summer 2020, when the couple took a road trip from Los Angeles to New York together. They were cooped up in a tour bus and stayed out of the public eye. The Barbadian beauty would cook on a “little janky grill I bought from Walmart” and Rocky would tie-dye T-shirts he bought from the major retailer. “I love the simple things but also the grand adventures,” she said. “There’s no pretentious my-brand-your-brand bullshit, it’s just us living. I just feel like I can do any part of life by his side.”

Then the holiday season came and fans saw paparazzi photos of the couple spending time in Rihanna’s home country of Barbados. However, it wasn’t exactly what we thought. The mom-to-be shared that Rocky also has a connection to her home country. The “Peso” rapper’s father is also from Barbados. She said it was “heartwarming” to watch her beau envision his dad as a boy and walk the same streets that his father walked.

During their time on the beautiful island, Rocky was also able to win over Rihanna’s mother. “My mother has a really good read on people. She observes first and then she’ll move slowly,” she said. “I guess I’m like that too. There are some guys that I’ve dated that she won’t even look at to this day. But she was charmed by him from the jump.”

And while she would love to raise their child in Barbados, she knows that it’s not realistic with being who they are and so they are still figuring out where to live.

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