Rihanna buys ventilator for her dad who thought he was 'going to die' after contracting coronavirus
Despite becoming a famous singer and a beauty mogul, Rihanna never forgot her roots, something she proved when her dad contracted coronavirus.
Ronald Fenty, 66, said that while he grappled with mortality every day since he tested positive for COVID-19, his daughter did everything in her power to help him out in such a dire state.
"My daughter Robyn was checking in on me every day," he told The Sun, referring to the pop star by her birth name. "I thought I was going to die to be honest. I have to say, 'I love you so much, Robyn. She did so much for me. I appreciate everything she has done."
Although Ronald was self-quarantined in Paragon Isolation Center in Barbados for 14 days, and Rihanna was back in the United States, she made sure to stay in touch with her father and even purchased and sent him a ventilator just in case he needed it during his recovery. Thankfully, however, he ended up not needing it.
But that did not mean that Ronald got it easy when it came to recovering from the virus. "I got a fever up inside of my nose. I had a fever across my lips. It was just a lot of fever. I feared the worst. I thought I was going to die, honestly," he said.
Nevertheless, Rihanna hasn't had a pleasant relationship with her dad in the past as she does now. Ronald divorced her mother when she was young and the 'Diamonds' singer famously told Oprah Winfrey that as a child she had witnessed her father physically abusing her mother and even breaking her nose at one point.
Ronald also battled crack cocaine addiction and often struggled with alcoholism in the past. As a result of his drunkenness, he was sent back from one of Rihanna's tours in 2008 after he misbehaved on the bus. Following that incident, Rihanna froze her dad out for two years before they reconciled.
However, the problems did not stop. After he was arrested during a visit to California in 2014, Rihanna secretly sent her father to a $58,000 Malibu rehab program to save him from jail. But the following year, he was expelled from her Diamond Ball after he got drunk and fell over on the red carpet.
They ended up reconciling once more and were seen together when they celebrated her maternal grandfather Lionel Braithwaite's 90th birthday at a Bridgetown nightclub in Barbados, in November 2018.
She ended up purchasing the big house where he currently lives. Despite their cordial relationship she ended up suing him to stop him from profiting from her name.
Rihanna has not only been thinking about her dad in this time of crisis. After she pledged to give $5 million to various causes through her Clara Lionel Foundation, she announced that her and Jay-Z's respective foundations were each donating $1 million to support undocumented workers, elderly and homeless people, and the children of health workers and first responders in both Los Angeles and New York City.