Rihanna Admits: My Father Turned his Back on Me
Dec. 2 2009, Published 1:32 p.m. ET
She has discussed her relationship with Chris Brown, on her Rated R promotional tour, but now Rihanna has opened up about her difficulties with another man in her life: Her father.
During a visit to Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM show yesterday, she broke her silence on her year-long rift with dad Ronald Fenty, and says she's given up trying to contact him, reports the UK's Daily Mail newspaper.
Rihanna, 21, who became estranged from her father after an incident when he got drunk and embarrassed her during one of her tours, slammed reports that the 56-year-old had tried to get in touch with her.
'That sounds very strange to me, seeing as I've been the one trying to reconcile with him forever,' she said.
"I haven't heard from my father in over a year," she said, "I try though, I reached out to him. I did my part. Now it's on him."
She added, "He kind of did something that was really upsetting. He turned his back on me and went to the media.
Ronald deepened the rift with his daughter when he spoke to the media about her beating at the hands of Chris Brown.
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"He got paid to talk about stuff - all these little interviews he was doing after the whole situation in February.
"I hadn't spoken to him and he was speaking as though we did. It was so disappointing to me."
Rihanna explained how they originally stopped talking. "He disrespected some people on the bus and I didn't like that, so I kind of just let him go back home.
"I didn't think it was going to be a thing where we weren't talking to each other. I just thought, 'You just need some time away right now'.
But the damage was done, Ronald wanted nothing to do with his daughter.
"Every time I tried to call him after that, that was it. I contacted him on numerous occasions — Father's Day, his birthday — and just nothing.
"It's funny that you're saying he's trying to reconcile. He has my number."