Rihanna has taken legal action against her father, Ronald Fenty, accusing him of using their family name and her celebrity status to further his entertainment business.
In the lawsuit, Rihanna – real name Robyn Fenty – suggests her dad and his business partner have falsely claimed that she’s associated with their company, Fenty Entertainment, which they set up in 2017.
Although known professionally under the single-name moniker Rihanna, the singer uses her surname, Fenty, for her successful cosmetics line, claiming in her lawsuit that her father’s similarly-named business has negatively affected her own.
She also owns the trademark for the name Fenty in the US.
The lawsuit says (via the BBC): “Defendants continue to this date to use their misrepresentations for their commercial advantage and to mislead the public.
“This fraudulent conduct harms not only plaintiffs but the public at large and requires judicial intervention.”
Fenty Entertainment is described on its official website as a “groundbreaking entertainment company” that aims to “cultivate new talent and [develop] TV and media platforms for promoting brand development”.
The BBC also reports that Rihanna’s dad announced the business as having launched “with” Rihanna, despite her maintaining she was in no way involved in it.
The lawsuit continues: “Although Mr Fenty is Rihanna’s father, he does not presently, nor has he ever, had the authority to act on Rihanna’s behalf or had the right to use her Fenty mark, to exploit the goodwill of her Fenty brands or to solicit business on her behalf.”
Rihanna has spoken in the past of her tumultuous relationship with her father, telling Vogue in 2011 she’d been left “questioning what she has become to him”.
Her comments came after he told the media what she described as a “bunch of lies” about her, following her assault at the hands of ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
A year later, though, she told Oprah Winfrey that their relationship was much stronger, and they had managed to put their rocky past behind them.