Rihanna and Jay-Z, real name Shawn Corey Carter, go way back. The singer auditioned for Jay-Z’s record label when she was just 16, and Jay-Z wanted to sign her immediately, recognizing her incredible talent. Unfortunately, years later, Jay-Z confirmed that he cheated on his wife, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Many fans speculated that Jay-Z cheated on his wife with Rihanna. Here’s what a source said about Rihanna keeping a “very close eye” on the younger star.
Beyoncé allegedly once closely watched Rihanna and Jay-Z at the height of the cheating allegations
Jay-Z met Rihanna when she was just 16 years old. He knew she had incredible talent and signed her to Def Jam Records the same day. Rihanna released her debut single, “Pon de Replay,” in 2005. While the young star likely wanted fans to focus on her music, she and Jay-Z hit a publicity snag a few years later. Rihanna’s publicist at the time, Jonathan Hay, invented a lie that stated Jay-Z was cheating on Beyoncé with Rihanna.
“The PR stunt that I did wads out of desperation to help break ‘Pon de Replay,’” Hays told the author of Becoming Beyonce: The Untold Story, J. Randy Taraborrelli, according to Essence. “It was reckless, and I didn’t think it was going to work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick.”
The story hit the media and spread like wildfire. While it boosted Rihanna’s plays, it came at a price. In 2016, a source told HollywoodLife that Beyoncé remained highly suspicious of the younger star. That same year, Beyoncé called Jay-Z out for cheating on her album, Lemonade.
“Rihanna is a person she’s suspicious of; there have been so many rumors over the years about her and Jay it’s hard to know what to believe,” the source told HollywoodLife at the time. “At this point, Beyoncé keeps a very close eye on Jay and Rihanna, but he’s not banned from working with her, not yet at least.”
Jay-Z opened up about fighting for his marriage
Jay-Z spoke on CNN in 2018 about fighting for his marriage to Beyoncé when the going got tough.
“You can love someone, and if you haven’t experienced love, and you don’t understand it, and you don’t have the tools to move forward, then you’re gonna have complications, period,” the rapper admitted. “You can either address it, or you can pretend until it blows up at some point. For us, we chose to fight for our love, for our family, to give our kids a different outcome.”
Jay-Z noted that he and Beyoncé are “real people” despite their celebrity status. If roles were reversed, he said he “hopes” he could forgive her for cheating like she forgave him.
Rihanna once said she ‘loved’ Beyoncé
Despite the rumors regarding Rihanna and Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna seemingly managed to stay on good terms. In 2006, Rihanna told Extra that she “loved” Beyoncé.
“She wrote me this cute little letter,” Rihanna said at the time, “and she signed it with her autograph. It was so cute. When I first met her, she was telling me just let loose when you perform and just have fun and be in control.”
A decade later, Rihanna squashed the idea that she and Beyoncé had beef by writing a comment on Instagram. She told fans to stop pitting them against each other and that they both “deserve to be celebrated,” especially as Black women in the media. In 2025, they likely have a lot of respect for each other with no rivalry in sight.
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