- Rihanna and her father, Ronald Fenty, are heading to a jury trial on June 23, 2020, to decide who has the rights to use their last name, Fenty, in business, according to court documents.
- In January, The Blast reported that Rihanna sued her father for using the name Fenty – which she trademarked – to market his entertainment brand.
- In her original lawsuit, Rihanna also accused her father of pretending to be her manager and booking unauthorized concerts for millions of dollars.
- Rihanna has previously spoken out against her father and said on Good Morning America in 2009 that he used to beat her mother.
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Rihanna and her father will be facing a jury trial in 2020 as part of an ongoing battle over the use of their last name, Fenty, in their respective business ventures.
According to new court documents obtained by INSIDER, the multihyphenate star and Ronald Fenty, her father, are expected in court on June 23, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. Rihanna previously sued her father, as well as a man named Moses Perkins, in January for using the name Fenty to market their brand, Fenty Entertainment, The Blast reported.
Rihanna trademarked the name, which she shares with her father, before launching her beauty brand in 2017.
In recent years, Rihanna has used her last name to catapult multiple successful business ventures
She first found inspiration in the moniker around 2017 when she launched her cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty. The line was instantly praised for its wide shade range and versatile products.
Prior to launching the brand, Rihanna trademarked her last name, INSIDER previously reported.
The musician-turned-beauty-mogul then transferred her business skills to the fashion world. She created a successful partnership between Fenty and Puma, and later launched her own lingerie line called Savage x Fenty.
The latter was widely praised for both its inclusive size range and its debut fashion show, where women with different skin tones and body types walked the runway.
Rihanna most recently dove into the high-end world of designers by launching her own fashion house under LVMH. Products range in price from $190 to $810, and advertisements for the brand appear to be unedited.
Rihanna's father, Ronald, founded his own Fenty brand in 2017
According to The Blast, which previously said it obtained court documents, Ronald founded Fenty Entertainment in 2017, and then posed as his daughter's manager. He reportedly booked 15 concerts in Latin America, as well as another two in the United States, for $15 million and $400,000 respectively.
Rihanna's original lawsuit asked for a court injunction that would stop her father from using the name Fenty in business, as well as unspecified damages.
Rihanna has previously spoken out against her father
In 2009, Rihanna said during a Good Morning America interview that her father used to beat her mother.
"Domestic violence is not something that people want anybody to know, so she would just hide it in the house," Rihanna said during the interview. "I always said to myself, 'I'm never going to date somebody like my dad, never.'"
According to the Independent, Rihanna also told Vogue in 2011 that her father told the press "a bunch of lies" after her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown was convicted of assaulting her.
"You hear the horror stories about people going behind people's backs and doing strange things, but you always think, 'Not my family. My father would never do that to me,'" Rihanna reportedly told Vogue in 2011.
"But my dad went to the press and just told them a bunch of lies," she continued. "Because he hadn't talked to me after that whole thing. He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing. He just never called. He went straight to the press and got a cheque. And now he does it again."
"It's like, what do I even mean to him?" Rihanna told Vogue "It's really strange. That's the only word I can think of to describe it, because you grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness sake! And then he does something so bizarre that I can't begin to wrap my mind around it."
Representatives for Rihanna did not immediately reply to INSIDER's request for comment.
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