NEED TO KNOW
Officials have released the cause of death for Rihanna’s dad, Ronald Fenty, who died on May 30 at age 70.
According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, the musician and beauty mogul’s father died from cancer, pneumonia and other serious illnesses after he checked into a Los Angeles hospital late last month.
The outlet reported that Fenty’s death certificate listed acute respiratory failure, pancreatic cancer and aspiration pneumonia, a bacterial lung infection.
Other causes shown in the document include acute renal failure and acute tubular necrosis, TMZ reported.
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According to Starcom Network, which was first to report the news, Fenty died last month in Los Angeles following “a brief illness.”
Sources told the outlet, which is based in Rihanna’s home country of Barbados, that Fenty’s family was with him around the time of his death.
In photos obtained by TMZ, Rihanna’s brother, Rajad Fenty, could be seen arriving at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on May 28.
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Rihanna — who is currently pregnant and expecting her third baby with partner A$AP Rocky — was born to Fenty and mother Monica Braithwaite in February 1988. (The couple are already parents to sons Rza, 3, and Riot, 1.)
Along with Rihanna and Rajad, Fenty and Braithwaite were also parents to Rorrey. Rihanna also has three half-siblings from her father’s previous relationships: sisters Samantha and Kandy, plus brother Jamie.
Fenty and Braithwaite raised their family in Bridgetown, Barbados, where Rihanna lived until she was 16 years old. The pair separated when the “Love on the Brain” musician was young, and they officially divorced in 2002, when Rihanna was 14.
Rihanna’s has been candid about her relationship with her father over the years, and spoke out against her father after she was assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009 and Fenty reportedly spoke to the press about the incident without his daughter’s consent.
“You grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness’ sakes!” she said, per Billboard. “And then he does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it.”
The following year, Rihanna shared during a TV appearance alongside Oprah that she had “repaired” her relationship with her father.
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“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,” she said of her dad. “And I had to come to terms with that, and I was able to close that gap with him.”
The pair later became involved in a lawsuit in 2019, when Rihanna sued her father for allegedly exploiting her name for financial gain by starting a talent development company in 2017 called Fenty Entertainment, posing as her manager to solicit new clients. Three weeks before the case went to trial in 2021, Rihanna filed to dismiss the lawsuit, according to the BBC.
Rihanna was reportedly present in the car that took her father to the hospital in late May, TMZ reported at the time. Fenty was surrounded by family at the time of his death, the outlet added.
