Okay, so it’s the night after the last day of Milan Fashion Week and I’m at a giant arena on the outskirts of Milan to interview my former boss, Rihanna, for our Spring cover story. I walked in and there were, like, 50 dancers rehearsing for a one-off private show she was doing in India later that week. Songs like “Work” and “We Found Love” were reverberating through the space in a really intense way that took me back to when I was her stylist. When you’re in an empty arena and the music is pumping like that, the whole place starts shaking and you realize the magnitude of megastardom—but I wasn’t stressed about it. I was just there to get this interview done. At 3 a.m. Rihanna and I ducked behind some lush curtains that opened up to a really comfortable backstage setup. We took off our shoes, got cozy, and for the next 90 minutes, she gave Interview her all.

———

MONDAY 3AM FEB. 26, 2024 MILAN

MEL OTTENBERG: Okay. We’re going to start this fucking interview. Outfit check: She’s wearing Fenty Puma shoes. 

RIHANNA: Y’all talk about this shit?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, but I edit it. I’m doing this, so there’s not a single question from my team. Meaning, this is our shit. I’m not here to—

RIHANNA: Judge me? 

OTTENBERG: No, I threw out my team’s questions because they were stupid. This is just us talking. 

RIHANNA: Were they stupid or invasive?

OTTENBERG: I’m happy to ask them because I love my team, but— 

RIHANNA: Where’s your core leading you? I know you probably feel like there’s some of those that are, like, “I wish I could ask this, but I don’t want her to feel offended or make her feel like I’m being intrusive.” Because Mel?

OTTENBERG: Yeah?

RIHANNA: I’m doing an Interview interview.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

RIHANNA: You know what that means, right? It’s usually the best interviews ever.

OTTENBERG: Okay, sick. 

RIHANNA: And I’m being interviewed by the Mel Ottenberg. We have a lot of history. I know this is probably tricky, but let’s have fun.

OTTENBERG: We’re having fun. I’m going to take my shoes off.

RIHANNA: Please. I’ll take my shoes off, too. My Fenty Pumas. 

OTTENBERG: [Laughs] Wait, you didn’t finish your outfit check. 

RIHANNA: Don’t look at my toenails.

OTTENBERG: Who makes your pants?

RIHANNA: These are Michelle’s [Rihanna’s personal assistant’s] pants and they’re by Palace.

OTTENBERG: Okay. Shout-out to Michelle.

RIHANNA: This is by Jawara Alleyne, who’s my new favorite designer because I am struggling with tops.

OTTENBERG: People aren’t making the right tops. Also, you need an open neck a lot of the time.

RIHANNA: Dude. There’s no open necks.

OTTENBERG: For our shoot, I was like, “Okay, what are the people missing from Rihanna? They’re really missing the cuntiest, sickest-smelling Rihanna red carpet looks.” Then I started looking at the runways and I was like, “There’s no open necks. She’s not going to like this stuff. I need a new idea.”

RIHANNA: Here’s the thing. We have always been good at working with what I have to offer.

OTTENBERG: Right.

RIHANNA: You’ve always taken advantage of my silhouette and what my body is doing. Like when I’m mad skinny, my boobs are, like, nothing and I have a little booty, and you work with that. And now it’s like, “Okay, I had two babies. You really have to push this up, snatch this in, or do an illusion of a little bit of skin here.”

OTTENBERG: Yes. Because when you’re thicker, you need to show more skin.

RIHANNA: When I’m thicker, I need to work my booty.

OTTENBERG: Yes, yes, yes. Well, you look great.

RIHANNA: Thank you. 

OTTENBERG: What color lipstick are you wearing? I bet it’s Fenty Beauty.

RIHANNA: It is.

OTTENBERG: I was planning to not ask about Fenty Beauty stuff because we’re doing another thing, but I want to because your makeup looks great. What’s your lipstick called?

RIHANNA: I have two. So we’re doing a double layer of either lip gloss or lipstick. Now that we have a lip balm that Rocky made, that’s usually my first step, but I’m doing double lipstick. I did Stunna Lip Paint in Uncensored, and then I did Velvet Icon on top in The MVP.

OTTENBERG: Okay. What’s this earring?

RIHANNA: It is a little gift from Rocky.

OTTENBERG: He has such good taste.

RIHANNA: Isn’t he the best? I be feeling bummy as shit next to this man. I feel like, goddamn, I look like his assistant. I’m getting on a plane. We should be in sweats. He wants to be in a full Bottega suit. I’m like, “Why you got to do that to me?”

OTTENBERG: Is there a little competition for the looks?

RIHANNA: No. It’s more like I spend my time getting the kids dressed to death, and then I’m like, “What’s the most comfortable outfit to wear around them? What’s not going to feel uncomfortable on their face or on their body or make me feel like I can’t hold them properly?” Moms are lazy dressers in real life.

OTTENBERG: Right. Do you have racks of children’s clothes?

RIHANNA: I have racks, I have bags. They’re all sized and organized, and then whatever gets too small for RZA, I put into bins so that Riot can have them next. Riot is actually in all of RZA’s 1-year-old clothes already. He’s only six months. Everybody thinks Rocky dresses them because I dress them in Rocky outfits.

OTTENBERG: What was RZA’s first word?

RIHANNA: “Hey.”

OTTENBERG: Cool.

RIHANNA: I used to try to get his attention all the time, and I would say, “Hey, hey, hey.” And one day he said it back to me in the same melody and I kept singing it and he kept following it over and over again.

OTTENBERG: So cute. 

RIHANNA: Super cute. 

OTTENBERG: I can’t believe you have two babies.

RIHANNA: I can’t believe I have two babies.

OTTENBERG: I can’t believe I’m backstage with you at 3:30 in the morning and you have two babies. 

RIHANNA: Mel Ottenberg, have you met me? That’s the usual. 

OTTENBERG: No, no, no. I’m just shocked that we’re doing this interview here. I haven’t been backstage and I haven’t felt the reverberations of a stadium in so long, so it reminds me of when I first worked with you and how scary it all was. It’s exciting, but it’s not PTSD. It’s more like—

RIHANNA: It’s PTSD. 

OTTENBERG: No, it’s not. 

RIHANNA: We lost a diamond hoop on our first performance. 

OTTENBERG: Yes.

RIHANNA: Did you have insurance for that one? 

OTTENBERG: No, it wasn’t real. 

RIHANNA: So why did you pass out over it?

OTTENBERG: Okay, what happened, people, is that—

RIHANNA: “You have to return the earring to clear us, guys.”

OTTENBERG: Let me go backwards. We worked together in 2007. I styled you for Elle. I found the pictures today. It’s so wild. And you were fun and cool, and then I got hired to do you for—

RIHANNA: [Laughs] Was I fun and cool?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, you were fun and cool and sassy and cute.

RIHANNA: I was so young, and I was like, “Do whatever, Mel.” It’s kind of like this cover.

OTTENBERG: Wait. In 2007, you were 19.

RIHANNA: I never had done a publication that big at that point.

OTTENBERG: Right.

RIHANNA: And I trusted you. 

OTTENBERG: You trusted that it was the right thing to do. 

RIHANNA: You people have been doing this forever. They wanted me? I’m not going to come in there like I know anything.

OTTENBERG: Right, right, right. Anyway, then I saw the “Rude Boy” video, and thought, “I don’t like these clothes, but I love her and the way she wears fashion is transcending something. I want to work with her.” I manifested it in that moment.

RIHANNA: I never knew where that came from.

OTTENBERG: Wait, is this your diaper bag? What’s in the diaper bag? 

RIHANNA: This is Riot’s rag. This is RZA’s pacifier.

OTTENBERG: Cute.

RIHANNA: And then after I got to Europe, I switched over their stuff to another bag. But when I move, I either keep a rag or a pair of socks or a pacifier, something from them.

OTTENBERG: Do you guys both change diapers?

RIHANNA: Oh, yeah. Rocky has never shied away from it. He does the shirt up over the nose with a stinky diaper. He gets through it. It’s kind of funny.

OTTENBERG: The goal is to never do this, but mad respect for the— 

RIHANNA: The goal is to never do this?

OTTENBERG: For me. I’m never having a child. That would be terrible. 

RIHANNA: You could have a child. 

OTTENBERG: No, I’d like to have fish. Anyway, hold on. What else is in this diaper bag?

RIHANNA: Okay, let’s not classify this as a diaper bag. This was a diaper bag. This is a YSL mini duffle. 

OTTENBERG: It’s cute, by the way. 

RIHANNA: But I kept some things from the kids in here, and I have a pair of sunglasses. I have meds. 

OTTENBERG: She’s got her meds, people. They’re in a Ziploc bag. 

RIHANNA: Okay. This is a part of my rolling—

OTTENBERG: Your rolling section. 

RIHANNA: I call it my apparatus. You want to know what else is in here?

OTTENBERG: What?

RIHANNA: Fenty perfume. Vicks cough drops, because I’m at rehearsals.

OTTENBERG: This smells good. Is this what you’re wearing right now?

RIHANNA: Yeah, always. Then a satin hair scarf.

OTTENBERG: Okay.

RIHANNA: This is an Eaze Drop Stick, but it is a sample so it’s not in the right packaging.

OTTENBERG: Okay.

RIHANNA: There’s also a pack of cards.

OTTENBERG: Oh, sick. What game do you play?

RIHANNA: Rocky taught me this game called Crazy Eights, and it gets very competitive. Actually most of our arguments stem from it.

OTTENBERG: Wow.

RIHANNA: Yeah, it gets very serious. But he taught me, and then he cheats, and then the rules change every time we play. It’s not just me that says this. His friends say this, too.

OTTENBERG: Wow.

RIHANNA: But it’s fun. And I beat his ass sometimes, but he beats me most of the time.

OTTENBERG: Wait, so you guys were involved in some way before. Then when did you start going out, going out? 2012?

RIHANNA: No! We didn’t meet— 

OTTENBERG: I think “Fashion Killa” is 2012.

RIHANNA: Go back to the VMAs. 

OTTENBERG: Oh my god. The VMAs. Remember—

RIHANNA: He grabbed my ass! What year was that? 

OTTENBERG: It was 2012; 2013 was the Diamonds [World] Tour. 

RIHANNA: I’m bad with years, so I believe you. So that was the day that we thought we met. At rehearsal, so it was, like, manager to manager, client to client. 

OTTENBERG: Right.

RIHANNA: So when he grabbed my ass that night, everybody thought I was about to—

OTTENBERG: That you guys were fucking.

RIHANNA: No, my team was worried that I wanted to have his head on a fucking mantle. [Laughs] 

OTTENBERG: Got it. 

RIHANNA: But I was like,“Ah, nah.” That’s why everybody was like, “Oh my god. She likes him.”

OTTENBERG: Wait, were you guys dating when “Fashion Killa” happened?

RIHANNA: Hell no. He asked me to be in a video. Virgil [Abloh] shot that. 

OTTENBERG: I never asked questions because it was, like, TMI. 

RIHANNA: We saw fashion the same. We saw creative the same. We ended up in the same circles a lot. And past that, when we grew up, we ended up supporting each other’s brands and products and creative all the time. I would wear his shit, he would show up to my launches. But it wasn’t until the end of 2019—

OTTENBERG: Was it a DM, a text? 

RIHANNA: No! We’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve seen him in relationships. He’s seen me in relationships. We’ve seen each other outside of relationships. We knew what we’re capable of, and the trouble that we could bring to each other’s lives. We can make or break each other’s hearts. And so, we started dating with a lot of caution.

OTTENBERG: Yeah, you told me that before.

RIHANNA: I just let whatever was supposed to happen, happen. It was just, “This is a flower. It’s either going to die or blossom. But I’m going to let it decide itself.”

OTTENBERG: Relationships are hard.

RIHANNA: Yo, you’re really good at this shit.

OTTENBERG: What?

RIHANNA: Interviewing. 

OTTENBERG: Oh.

RIHANNA: I saw what you just did there. That’s like a professional journalist thing.

OTTENBERG: [Laughs]

RIHANNA: I said a lot, but you paused like I didn’t say enough, and you were waiting for more. That’s how people end up saying too much. And then you just go into, “Relationships are hard.”

OTTENBERG: Well, they are. 

RIHANNA: Dot, dot, dot. You go after that. I’m not going after that. 

OTTENBERG: Okay. Well when you knew me I was in a relationship, and now I’m in a much different place, profile-wise.

RIHANNA: Is it harder for you? 

OTTENBERG: Yeah. It’s harder to meet people because you’re, like— 

RIHANNA: “Who are you into, me or the idea of me?”

OTTENBERG: Yeah, or I have more walls up because I always think people want shit from me. I’m more separated from a lot of people than I used to be. But was COVID maybe a blessing then?

RIHANNA: COVID sped up our relationship, which I felt like god knew we needed because we were going to start a family. And had it not been for COVID, we would’ve taken a lot more time to get comfortable with each other, to even know that we were ready.

OTTENBERG: But you were just together and you’re, like, “Oh, let’s fucking go”?

RIHANNA: I mean, we didn’t even really talk about it. There was no denying it. It was the best thing that ever happened to us. It just happened.

OTTENBERG: So good.

RIHANNA: I let god lead and just let go. Because in previous relationships, I tried and tried and tried my best, and you still feel like it’s not enough. So when someone sees you completely, and believes in you, and thinks you’re worthy of being the mother of their kids, it’s a great feeling. I felt the same about him. I knew he would be a great dad.

OTTENBERG: Sick. How many more kids do you want?

RIHANNA: As many as god wants me to have.

OTTENBERG: Okay. But more than two?

RIHANNA: I don’t know what god wants, but I would go for more than two. I would try for my girl. But of course if it’s another boy, it’s another boy.

OTTENBERG: Okay. What are you watching on TV?

RIHANNA: I don’t get to watch a lot of TV anymore, but Housewives is always my priority.

OTTENBERG: I was asked to be the bartender this week, but I’m in Milan.

RIHANNA: For Watch What Happens Live [With Andy Cohen]?

OTTENBERG: Yes.

RIHANNA: Wait, can you confirm a week with them, and make sure that I know when this is happening?

OTTENBERG: I promise that I will let you know when it’s happening.

RIHANNA: Do you know how to make a drink?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, I used to drink. I don’t drink anymore, but—

RIHANNA: No, but you know how to make a drink?

OTTENBERG: I can make a screwdriver. I can make a vodka tonic. I can make a tequila soda. I can make—

RIHANNA: Vodka soda with lime. 

OTTENBERG: I can cut a lime. Wait, should Monica [Garcia] come back? 

RIHANNA: I mean, if Tom Sandoval can come back, Monica should definitely be able to come back. 

OTTENBERG: Do you think that Kyle [Richards] and Morgan [Wade] were a couple?

RIHANNA: I mean, duh. [Laughs] Listen, I love Kyle. It’s weird commenting on her relationship because I don’t know the facts. I just feel like she was able to re-observe her marriage through a new lens. For once, someone else made her feel valued, made her feel like she was cute and quirky and fun and all the great things that maybe were taken for granted before. And that’s why I believe that there’s something with Morgan, because sometimes, it takes that for you to fight for what you deserve.

OTTENBERG: Jeremy O. Harris and I were talking about this earlier and he reminded me that the psychic said—

RIHANNA: Man, stop. I’m not getting into that. You messy bitch.

OTTENBERG: [Laughs] That messy psychic that invented vaping.

RIHANNA: You messy. 

OTTENBERG: Okay, fine. 

RIHANNA: That was really fucked up. The flashback of that. 

OTTENBERG: She says, “You’re not satisfied. And once the children are gone, you guys will have nothing in common.” Okay, thoughts on plastic surgery? What would your fantasy surgery be?

RIHANNA: Me?

OTTENBERG: Yeah, in like 10 years or whatever?

RIHANNA: No, no, no. Not 10. I don’t got that much time. 

OTTENBERG: Okay, let’s fucking go. [Laughs]

RIHANNA: I want my titties pinned back to my shoulders, right where they used to be. I don’t want implants. I just want a lift.

OTTENBERG: They can do it without putting the thing in?

RIHANNA: Yeah. If you have breast tissue.

OTTENBERG: Oh, is that a new thing?

RIHANNA: No. It’s just called a breast lift.

OTTENBERG: That’s great. So you can basically get your old tits back? 

RIHANNA: I haven’t done enough research to know, but I heard that you might have some scars. I’m okay with all that. But I don’t want to ever have a tummy tuck because I don’t want a new navel, and I don’t want that scar, right? 

OTTENBERG: Also, did you know that when you get a tummy tuck, the fat just grows somewhere else? 

RIHANNA: Well, guess what? You get that when you’re pregnant. Third-trimester cellulite is no joke. You just see ripples coming from places you never knew, and it’s all in your thighs, because your thighs are carrying the weight of your baby and uterus. 

OTTENBERG: Okay, so you don’t want a tummy tuck.

RIHANNA: No. I’m also scared of the knife. So if I had to pick one thing, I’m going to pick my boobs. 

OTTENBERG: Okay.

RIHANNA: Because I can, like, squat and get an ass, hopefully. 

OTTENBERG: You can do it, if you want to. I mean, you’re never getting a—

RIHANNA: BBL?

OTTENBERG: No.

RIHANNA: Only if you get one. We could do a twofer. Who’s going to take care of us? We can’t take care of each other. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: And this part can be fully off the record, but I always say—

RIHANNA: I don’t give a shit. Mel, you asked me about Kyle Richards, and this part is off the record?

OTTENBERG: [Laughs] Okay, because—

RIHANNA: My whole tits and BBL fantasy is on the record. Wait. You looking at your questions?

OTTENBERG: Yeah. I have a few more questions I want to ask you. Do you miss being on the internet, like really on the internet? Like, “Good luck booking that stage you speak of ” internet? Because you were so good at it.

RIHANNA: The troll in me, she had a time. Unfortunately, you can’t take anything back from the internet, so I will always have the reminders, but the best troll in me is the silent troll.

OTTENBERG: One of my favorite tweets of yours that I can’t find is the one that says, “Life’s a bitch, and her pussy wet.” Does that ring a bell?

RIHANNA: Did you delete that, Carolyn [Rihanna’s head of digital]?

CAROLYN GIRONDO: No. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah, I think you deleted it, Carolyn.

RIHANNA: You deleted it. 

GIRONDO: This is taking a turn. 

OTTENBERG: [Laughs] Now, we’re mad, because I have looked multiple times. When it’s Ri’s birthday or something, I’m like, “I don’t want to do an old picture. I just want to post that and get away with it.”

RIHANNA: You got so many pictures in your phone that you haven’t posted, too.

OTTENBERG: I know, I have all those pictures because I never did that book. Alright so—

RIHANNA: “I never did that book”? 

OTTENBERG: Remember, I was going to do a book before your book?

RIHANNA: A tell-all? 

OTTENBERG: [Laughs] Yeah, my tell-all. You tortured me. I turned you into a fashion monster. You wanted more, more, and more. And also, you would be, like, “I need the most obscure panty.”

RIHANNA: Listen, anytime we do something, the next thing just has to be better.

OTTENBERG: I completely agree. And by the way, that work ethic— 

RIHANNA: I just think you should want more too, every time. 

OTTENBERG: I do, bitch. Totally. But what I mean is—sorry. Good torture. Great torture.

RIHANNA: It’s giving Garcelle [Beauvais] and Dorit [Kemsley]. I didn’t attack you, Mel.

OTTENBERG: No, no, no, no. You didn’t attack me at all. 

RIHANNA: Then torture you. 

OTTENBERG: What I meant is, when you’re styling the biggest diva with the best fucking style in the world—

RIHANNA: Dorit, this is what you should have said.

OTTENBERG: Wait. I need another Coke. Hold on. [Pauses] Okay. I have a few more very short questions. This is such a sick interview, by the way.

RIHANNA: I love it.

OTTENBERG: Are you amazed at where your life is now? Like 10 or 15 years ago, would you have any idea?

RIHANNA: I wouldn’t have had any idea. The only thing that I knew I wanted, or that I could imagine, was motherhood. I didn’t know how it would come, but it is the best part of my journey so far. Everything else was a surprise.

OTTENBERG: Right. So we’re in a rehearsal space, which is—I’ve been interviewing you for a while and we haven’t talked about music. Do you have the vibe to do music again since we’re at a fucking rehearsal hall in 2024? Maybe it’s really sick if I just don’t bring up new music in this whole interview, actually.

RIHANNA: I have a lot of visual ideas. It’s weird. My brain is working backward right now. I usually have the music first, and the music leads me into all of these visual opportunities, and now I’m having all of these visuals, and I don’t have the songs for them yet, but maybe that’s the key, this time. Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make.

OTTENBERG: Like a rebirth of you? 

RIHANNA: Random ideas, quirky ideas, things that have nothing to do with me at all. I mean, I can’t tell you. The opps is watching. 

OTTENBERG: Okay. I’ll let everyone else ask about that other stuff. 

RIHANNA: [Laughs] What? The new album?

OTTENBERG: The new music, yeah. I’m like, these are the kind of questions—

RIHANNA: That’s not a Mel Ottenberg question!

OTTENBERG: What’s your favorite city right now?

RIHANNA: Ooh. Well, damn, I got different cities for different reasons, right?

OTTENBERG: Wait, your friends are, like, adults now, too. What’s-their-face? The president of France?

RIHANNA: You know who else are adults? The fucking fans, bro.

OTTENBERG: Wow. Totally. 

RIHANNA: They’re deadass having kids with me. They’re getting married. I’m like, “But you’re 16.” 

OTTENBERG: Right.

RIHANNA: I left them there in my mind. But we’re growing up together. It’s awesome to see all of our lives evolving at the same time. But what did you say? My friends are older?

OTTENBERG: Oh, that you’re friends with Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron.

RIHANNA: They’re amazing people, actually. Very humble people in very powerful positions, but they’re delightful, and Brigitte is such a graceful first lady.

OTTENBERG: So we like Paris for double dates.

RIHANNA: I like L.A. for doctors and teachers, but I like New York for the ability to figure your day out just getting outside. You can do eight things on the same block. With L.A., you have to really know what you’re doing before you leave home.

OTTENBERG: Okay. So what’s the best part about L.A.?

RIHANNA: My gynecologist, truthfully.

OTTENBERG: Great.

RIHANNA: I wouldn’t trade her for the world. That’s why I had my babies in L.A. Besides that, great doctors, great therapists for kids, great teachers. And it used to be the best weather and now it’s really cold all the time. I don’t get that. But New York is great for adventure, for the grit, for fashion, for everything that brings you back to reality.

OTTENBERG: Where’s home? 

RIHANNA: Barbados will always be home. One hundred percent. I’m still a citizen after all these years. [Laughs]

OTTENBERG: I need to go back to Barbados. It’s fucking great. Um, I’m all out of questions.

RIHANNA: Well, damn. Is there anything that your team wanted you to ask me?

OTTENBERG: Okay—

RIHANNA: Last chance. 

OTTENBERG: Let’s see if we think any of these questions are good. What songs do you sing to your kids?

RIHANNA: Oh my gosh. There’s “Penguins Salute.” There’s “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Oh my gosh. RZA gets really emotional about that.

OTTENBERG: Wow.

RIHANNA: Yeah, and now he’s really into “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” “The Wheels on the Bus” is a favorite from the beginning till now. That’s just a classic. It’s never going out of style. And oh, the new “Incy-Wincy Spider,” because he gets like, “Ahh,” like he thinks I’m going to tickle him when I sing that one. And he has a book about that, so he can put two and two together.

OTTENBERG: What are you afraid of, Rihanna?

RIHANNA: [Pauses] I’m actually afraid of shit. The well-being of your kids, you worry about that constantly. Nobody warns you that having kids means you’re going to worry every second of your life. Right? And betrayal, because disappointment is one of the emotions I don’t handle well. I feel like I’m just allergic to that shit.

OTTENBERG: What’s the Giorgio Baldi order?

RIHANNA: [Laughs] Everybody wants to know this.

OTTENBERG: Oh, then I don’t want to ask the question!

RIHANNA: I mean, fuck it. This is the easiest shit ever. I get the same thing every time. First I start with the calamari and langoustines and shrimp. All fried, not very healthy. Next I do the signature spaghetti, which is the tomato basil. And then I do a dish that I kind of made up, which is milk and cheese ravioli with a Bolognese meat sauce. I call it half-and-half.

OTTENBERG: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

RIHANNA: I literally didn’t go to sleep until today at 4 p.m., so don’t even ask me shit like that.

OTTENBERG: Got you. How do you keep the energy up?

RIHANNA: Espresso martinis, 5-Hour Energys. Those are really good for long nights, big shoots. The devil is also a liar. The devil doesn’t want me up.

OTTENBERG: He doesn’t. She doesn’t.

RIHANNA: Why you have to change it to “she”? I caught that.

OTTENBERG: Who are you fake around?

RIHANNA: Your team wrote that? 

OTTENBERG: Yeah. That’s a good question, actually.

RIHANNA: Yeah. I’m proud of that question. I need to think about that. Oh, my mom. I am terrified of that woman and she is just the greatest. I have the utmost respect for her, so I don’t even want to swear around her, drink around her, smoke or nothing. I have to be on my best behavior.

OTTENBERG: Is there a Rihanna that nobody sees?

RIHANNA: Uh, yeah. 

OTTENBERG: Done!

RIHANNA: I just wanted to say, you’re staring at me like you want me to tell you that?

OTTENBERG: I don’t. I mean, she’s private.

RIHANNA: Fuck off, Mel. 

OTTENBERG: There you have it, people.

———

Hair: Yusef Williams using What Wigs by Yusef at The Wall Group. 

Makeup: Yadim Carranza using Fenty Beauty at Art Partner. 

Nails: Kim Truong using Aprés Nail at Star Touch Agency. 

Set Design: Brittany Porter. 

Tailor: M’lynn Hass. 

Digital Operator: George Brooks. 

Fashion Assistants: Lucy Gaston, Nicholson Baird, Charlie Burke, and Hayley Kuniansky. 

Hair Assistant: Naphia White and Christopher Salmon. 

Makeup Assistants: Joseph Rios and Lilly Pollan. 

Nail Assistant: Queenie Doan. 

Set Design Assistant: Sunny Mills. 

Lighting Assistants: David Lopez and Carlos Quinteros. 

Production: The Morrison Group. 

Photography Production: Carlota Ruiz De Velasco, Malcolm Duncan, and Fabien Colas at DMB Represents. 

Production Assistant: Joel Montgomery. 

Music: DJ Inferno. 

Retouching: Kushtrim Kunushevci. 

Special Thanks: L’ermitage Beverly Hills.