Back in the day, Rihanna and Jay-Z’s names were often thrown around together, and with everything resurfacing now, people are digging up all the old receipts. One of the biggest rumors? That Rihanna once had Beyoncé in tears after Jay-Z showed up at a party hand in hand with her—allegedly, once again.
So, who was there for Beyoncé during that heartbreaking and humiliating moment?
Well, we’re about to break it all down and finally get to the bottom of what really went down between Rihanna and Jay-Z. So grab a seat because this is about to get real.
Now, let’s rewind a bit. We all know Beyoncé was already that girl in the industry when Rihanna came onto the scene with “Pon de Replay.” She signed with Jay-Z’s label, which naturally put her in Beyoncé’s orbit. And at first, Rihanna was nothing but complimentary toward Bey.
“I’m a big fan of Beyoncé. I love her!” she gushed in an old interview.
When asked if Beyoncé had given her any advice, she shared:
“Yeah, she actually wrote me this cute little letter and signed it with her autograph. It was so cute! When I first met her, she told me—just let loose when you perform, have fun, and be in control.”
But here’s what a lot of people don’t realize: Beyoncé may have unintentionally played a role in Rihanna’s rise—at the expense of another artist, Teairra Mari.
L.A. Reid even mentioned this in his book, Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next. He recalled the first time he saw Rihanna—just a pretty girl standing in the hallway. He had no idea she was a singer. But Jay-Z? He had already heard her voice and was pushing hard to get her signed.
And that, my friends, was just the beginning.
When Jay-Z signed Rihanna, he and his team handled the A&R for her first album—I had nothing to do with it. But here’s the interesting part: at the time, we actually signed two artists—Rihanna and another young singer named Teairra Mari.
According to L.A. Reid, after watching both of them perform, he was leaning toward making Teairra the next big star. But then, Beyoncé gave him a look and told him to pick Rihanna. And just like that, he chose Rihanna over Teairra.
Now, here’s where things get messy. A lot of people believed that Beyoncé pushed for Rihanna because she didn’t see her as a real threat, while Teairra Mari’s talent made her uncomfortable. Some even claimed that Beyoncé played a role in sabotaging Teairra—especially since Jay-Z had already called her the “Princess of the Roc.”
But in a wild twist of fate, Rihanna turned out to be huge—so big, in fact, that she became an even bigger threat to Beyoncé, both professionally and personally.
There’s even an old story that keeps resurfacing: supposedly, Beyoncé showed up to a party alone, and a little while later, Jay-Z walked in with Rihanna—looking real cozy. When Beyoncé saw them, she allegedly broke down, sobbing and hyperventilating. And the worst part? Jay-Z reportedly didn’t even acknowledge her. He just kept enjoying the party with Rihanna while Solange was the one who comforted Beyoncé.
If Jay-Z could embarrass her like that in public, just imagine what was happening behind closed doors. People have always questioned why Beyoncé stayed, and some believe Jay-Z has had a lot more control over her than we realize.
Fast-forward to now, and some interesting details from Becoming Beyoncé, a 2015 biography by J. Randy Taraborrelli, have started making the rounds again. The book claims that Beyoncé and Jay-Z actually split for about a year in 2005—the same time Jay was working with Rihanna. Naturally, this fueled even more rumors about an affair.
Taraborrelli even told Entertainment Tonight:
“Beyoncé didn’t know what to make of this, and it actually ended up breaking them up for a time. They spent maybe a year apart from each other because Beyoncé just wasn’t sure of what to make of the situation with Rihanna.”
And then there’s the whole PR stunt drama. When the cheating rumors started spiraling out of control, Rihanna’s former publicist, Jonathan, later admitted they actually made up the story to help boost her career. In an email, he confessed:
“The PR stunt that I did was out of desperation to help break ‘Pon de Replay.’ 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.”
He also said that he felt awful about it, especially knowing that Beyoncé was suffering while other people were cashing in on the drama.
“I’m ashamed that I’m even talking about this. I just want to put this rumor to rest once and for all.”
But let’s be real—was he pressured into saying that? Because there were plenty of receipts that suggested something was really going on between Jay-Z and Rihanna.
And speaking of the publicist, Jonathan recently mentioned that ever since these rumors started making waves again, his phone has been blowing up. He even posted about it on Instagram…
“I was mentioned in this wild, viral documentary by Trap La Ross that made it onto @academics, and it seriously blew my phone up for the past week. Now @JaguarWright is bringing up this crazy situation too. As the publicist for Rihanna’s debut single Pon de Replay, it’s time for me to finally set the record straight. I mean, this is straight-up shocking, messy, and just insane. You’re about to hear the truth about what William Mosley and I have been through over the years with this scandal, and it’s time to close the book on it once and for all. Yes, heads are going to roll, and people are going to be floored, but the truth needs to come out.”
Then, in an interview, Jonathan shared that he was stopped by federal agents, who, he claims, were keeping an eye on Jay-Z ever since his drama with Lance “Un” Rivera. He also said Jay-Z was being implicated in some mess with R. Kelly during their joint tour.
Jonathan explained that one day, unmarked law enforcement cars pulled him over, and these agents introduced themselves as a federal task force. They asked to speak with him, so he followed them, and he was honestly freaking out. When they sat down to question him, it hit him how serious the situation was.
Apparently, they told him they were investigating Jay-Z for allegedly being involved with Rihanna before she turned 18 and for illegally transporting her across international borders. And, according to the feds, Rihanna wasn’t the only one—there were others too.
This just adds to the speculation that something was going on between Jay-Z and Rihanna, maybe even something illegal. But here’s what really threw me off:
Jonathan claimed that Jay-Z was actually the reason Rihanna and Chris Brown broke up.
The story goes that Rihanna and Chris had an argument in a Lamborghini before the 2009 Grammys. Rihanna confronted Chris about cheating, and it turned physical—she ended up with a busted lip, black eye, and bruises. Chris later said Rihanna grabbed his crotch to take his phone, and in response, he bit her. Then, he claimed Rihanna jumped out of the car, screaming, “Help! He’s trying to unalive me!” and Chris was like, “Stop! We’re gonna get in trouble.”
But another version of the story suggests that Chris got mad because Rihanna gave him an STD that she’d gotten from Jay-Z. He supposedly confronted her about it, which led to the fight. The rumor is that Rihanna got upset with him for embarrassing her, and that’s when things escalated.
What’s even crazier is that it’s said Jay-Z pressured Chris into telling the story he did because Jay didn’t want anything about his alleged relationship with Rihanna getting out. People have no clue what really happened that night, and that’s because Jay-Z worked hard to control the narrative.
Rihanna was only 15 when Jay-Z signed her to Def Jam, and it’s widely believed that the herpes she had came from Jay-Z. The rumor is that Chris Brown had his first herpes outbreak after being with Rihanna, and the whole situation was set up to keep people from noticing how close she was to Jay-Z.
Man, Jaguar Wright is always spilling the hottest tea.
I can’t say for sure if all this is true, but there’s enough chatter about Jay-Z and Rihanna’s alleged affair that it makes you wonder what really went down.
When Jay-Z showed up to a party with Rihanna, and Beyoncé was seen sobbing, people weren’t really shocked. But what’s hard to understand is how Rihanna seemed okay with all of it—like, she was just fine embarrassing Beyoncé like that? Maybe that’s why Beyoncé and Rihanna have never worked together.
But hey, what do you think about all this resurfaced drama? Let me know in the comments.”
