Rihanna Family History

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, better known as the singer Rihanna, was born on February 20th, 1988 to Ronald and Monica Fenty in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Rihanna’s father had problems with both alcohol and drugs.  The marriage was troubled, occasionally abusive.  He and Monica separated when Rihanna was eight and their marriage ended by the time she was fourteen.

At the time Rihanna developed inexplicably painful headaches.  These miraculously cleared up after Ronald vacated the home.  Their bungalow is on the street which the Government has now renamed as Rihanna Drive.

Singing Success.  At sixteen Rihanna dropped out of high school to pursue her music ambitions.  A tape she produced so impressed a visiting American record producer that he invited her to New York for auditions.  Jay-Z heard her there and immediately signed her up to a six-album deal with his label Def Jam.  Rihanna relocated to New York.

She debuted with two Caribbean-inspired albums Music of the Sun and A Girl Like Me, both of which sold well.  Adopting a more mature image, she transitioned to dance-pop and R&B on her next albums Good Girl Gone Bad and Reloaded.  

Since these successes Rihanna has become one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with estimated sales of 250 million records.  She has also become a very successful businesswoman, what with her cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty and her fashion brand Fenty.  She was declared a National Hero of Barbados in 2021.

Rihanna experienced her own domestic violence in 2008 with her then boyfriend Chris Brown.  But things got better in 2021 with the New York rapper A$AP Rocky.  They have two children and are expecting a third.

What Ethnicity?

Rihanna is mixed race and she has identified as such.  The debate has been – to what extent?

During her childhood she was often called “white” by some of her classmates. “They would look at me and they would curse me out,” she would later say. “I didn’t understand it.”  She did have light skin and loose-textured hair.  And her natural green eyes were most likely the result of some European ancestors who possessed the gene for that eye color.

She has Irish ancestry probably through her father Ronald.  His forefathers are thought to have been indentured servants who were transported to Barbados in the 17th century to work on the sugar plantations. They were part of the Caribbean’s poor white community that became known as Redlegs.

There may also have been Scottish ancestry.  The Fenty surname, meaning “white” or “fair,” was first found around Banff in NE Scotland and was probably brought from there to Barbados.  It is not a common name.  The largest numbers of Fentys anywhere in the world today are in Barbados and America.

By contrast, Rihanna’s maternal Brathwaite line – as far as it can be traced going back two to three generations – is Afro-Bajan and Afro-Guyanese.

The Fenty Line

Early Fentys.  The Fentys did start out as white.  The first Fenty found in her line was Thomas Fenty, born around 1725 in St. Joseph parish, Barbados.  His line has been traced in Barbados down seven generations (although one person in these generations is missing) to Stanley Fitzgerald Fenty, born in 1906.  This Stanley is the grandfather of Ronald Fenty and hence Rihanna’s great grandfather.

Rihanna has stated that her father Ronald was “half black and half white.” Had mixed race with the Fentys already occurred?  Or did it come with Betty, Stanley’s daughter, and Reginald Forde who had Afro-Bajan ancestry?

Their son Ronald Fenty was born in 1954.  Reginald later disappeared to New York.

Ronald, Rihanna’s Father.  Perhaps a fatherless Ronald had an effect on him.  He got by as a warehouse supervisor in Bridgetown.  He also followed the local music scene.

He may have been a charmer.  He had children by three different women.  But his dependence on alcohol and drugs made him abusive and meant that these relationships did not endure.  His longest was with Rihanna’s mother Monica, fifteen years younger than him, which may have lasted ten years.  Ronald died, aged seventy, in 2025.

The Brathwaite Line

Records on the Brathwaite line do not go much further back than Rihanna’s grandparents Lionel and Clara Brathwaite.  Lionel was born in Barbados in 1928 and Clara in Guyana some years later.  However, the Brathwaites have been much more present in Rihanna’s life than the Fentys have been.

Lionel and Clara.  Lionel had a long life.  He celebrated his 90th birthday in 2018 and died in 2023.  His wife Clara died of cancer in 2012.  In their honor Rihanna created the Clara Lionel Foundation to provide quality treatment for cancer patients in Barbados .

Lionel was a seaman in his younger days.  His work took him around the Caribbean.  Rihanna called him “the captain of the ship” as he had been the guiding light that had kept their family together for many years.

He told the story about how he first met his wife Clara (or Dolly as he called her) back in the early 1960’s.  One day Dolly was selling mangoes in Guyana and Lionel was there and purchased her whole tray.  He didn’t just want fruit; he wanted to spend time with her.  And they were together for close on sixty years.

They had two children, Leroy and Monica, in Guyana.  They moved to Barbados.  Leroy ran a clothing shop in Bridgetown, sometimes selling – according to reports – counterfeit brands.  Monica worked as an accountant until she retired.  She was Rihanna’s full-time parent after her husband left the scene in 2002.

Rihanna’s Family Tree

• Paternal Fenty Line

• Stanley Fitzherbert Fenty from St. John, Barbados (1906-1978) m. Hilda Coggin (1908-1988) in 1926
• – Elizabeth (Betty) Fenty (1926-2000)
• – Beryl Fenty (b. 1931) m. Lionel Farnum
• – Jean Fenty (1933-1959)

• Ronald Fenty from Bridgetown, Barbados m. Monica Braithwaite from Guyana (b. 1969) in Barbados around 1987, separated around 1996 and divorced in 2002
• – Kandy Fenty (b. 1971) with children, from prior relationship
• – Samantha Fenty (b. 1981), from prior relationship
• – Jamie Fenty (b.1984), photographer, from prior relationship
• – Rihanna Fenty (b. 1988), R&B star
• – Rorrey Fenty (b. 1989), hip-hop musician Gailest
• – Rajad Fenty (b. 1996) with musician Nora

• Rihanna Fenty with Rakim Mayers aka. rapper A$AP Rocky from Harlem, New York (b. 1988)
• – son RZA Mayers (b. 2022)
• – son Riot Mayers (b. 2023)