Rihanna poses topless in maternity photo shoot

Home*Cover Story*Entertainment

Rihanna poses topless in maternity photo shoot

Rihanna has taken a page out of Janelle Monáe’s book by daring to bare in a throwback maternity photoshoot.

The Bajan beauty turned heads on Thursday (May 18) by sharing several photos from her first pregnancy with son RZA, who was born in May 2022.

The sensual snaps capture a sun-kissed RiRi proudly showing off her baby bump by the sea while wearing little more than a pair of black bikini bottoms and pieces of gold jewelry.

The Anti singer kept the shoot tasteful, though, by covering her breasts with her hands — or as she put it in her caption, rubbing on her titties.

“Here’s a little series I call ‘rub on ya titties,’” she wrote. “In honor of my first pregnancy, embracing motherhood like a g, and the magic that this body made! Baby RZA… he in there not having a clue how nuts his mama is, or how obsessed he was bout to make me #maternityshoot2022 #tobecontinued.”

Check out the photos below:

Rihanna’s sultry photoshoot comes shortly after it was revealed that her baby boy — whom she shares with boyfriend A$AP Rocky — is called RZA Athelston Mayers, named after the Wu-Tang Clan legend.

The child’s birth certificate, which was obtained by The Daily Mail earlier this month, also revealed he was born on May 13 at 10:58 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Sharing the same name as a Hip Hop icon runs in the family as Rocky (born Rakim Athelaston Mayers) is named after the pioneering lyricist Rakim.

The happy couple celebrated RZA’s first birthday last week with a fittingly Wu-Tang-themed party, where Rihanna dressed up as the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Pretty Flacko morphed into Ghostface Killah and baby RZA donned a costume inspired by his namesake.

As part of her outfit, RiRi even copped an 18-karat diamond grill that read “Dirt,” a replica of one ODB owned in the ’90s that was crafted by the same exact jeweler.

The pop superstar opened up about her parenthood experience an interview with British Vogue earlier this year, saying it has fundamentally changed her life.

Oh my God, it’s legendary,” she said of her first nine months as a mom. “It’s everything. You really don’t remember life before, that’s the craziest thing ever.

“You literally try to remember it — and there are photos of my life before — but the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far because…because it doesn’t matter.”

RiRi also gushed over the father-son bond between Rocky and RZA, joking that she feels like a third wheel at home.

“I’m just sitting on the sidelines when they’re together. I’m literally the girl trying to get into the boys club, waiting for my turn,” she added. “He is obsessed with his father. And I’m like, ‘Didn’t I give birth to you? What is going on?’

“Their connection is undeniable. The second Rocky makes eye contact with him he is on fire. The whole thing they say about sons and moms, it’s a myth. Sons and fathers is crazy. I realized that the validation that you really need as a boy is from your father.”

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s family is about to get even bigger as the 35-year-old singer is currently pregnant with baby number two. She unveiled her pregnant belly during her halftime show performance at Super Bowl LVII in February, with a rep confirming the news soon after.