Rihanna is expecting her first child with A$SP Rocky, and the internet is in an uproar: NPR

Rihanna has brought the world many gifts. She is an influential musician, actress, cosmetics and lingerie mogul, billionaire, and national heroine of her native Barbados.

And now she’s ready to add another title to that list: mother. The global superstar, 33, is expecting her first child with rapper A$AP Rocky.

couple photos walking hand-in-hand in New York City are doing the rounds on Twitter, and word of their announcement is spreading like wildfire across social media and celebrity-focused media outlets.

Celebrity photographer Miles Diggs, known as Diggzy, posted a close-up of Rihanna’s baby bump on Instagram on Monday, writing “SHE IS!” His many fans (including other celebrities) expressed their excitement in the comments.

The exact timeline of the power couple’s relationship is unclear, but they’ve been friends for nearly a decade, reportedly going official in the fall of 2020. They made their red carpet debut at the 2021 Met Gala. in September, which was news and at the same time was very casual.

“We weren’t even sure if we were going to go, so we were separately planning our look just to be prepared,” Rihanna later told E! News. “We ended up getting ready together and going and I didn’t even realize we were on a carpet together until someone was like, ‘You’re making your debut,’ and I was like, ‘Oh shit.'”

A$AP Rocky opened up about their relationship in an interview with GQ in May 2021, in which he called Rihanna “the love of my life” and “the only one”.

When asked if he was ready to be a father at some point, he said he thought he would be a “remarkably amazing, overall amazing dad.”

“I would have a very fly boy,” he said. “Very.”

For her part, Rihanna told British Vogue in May 2020 that she wants to have three or four children and would go it alone if she didn’t meet the right person.

“I feel like society makes me want to feel like, ‘Oh, you screwed up…’ You get looked down upon as a mother if there’s no father in your children’s lives,” she said. “But the only thing that matters is happiness, that’s the only healthy relationship between a father and a son. That’s the only thing that can raise a real son, is love.”

This story originally appeared in the morning edition live blog