Rihanna has responded to criticism for calling her baby boy “fine” in the caption of a recent Instagram post.
The singer appeared on the March cover of British Vogue with A$AP Rocky and their son, who was born in May 2022.
The cover story was released three days after Rihanna performed a stunning Super Bowl halftime show on 12 February – making her much-anticipated return to live music after five years.
She also announced she was expecting her second child with the American rapper during the performance, when she showed off her growing baby bump in a red Loewe jumpsuit.
On Thursday (16 February) Rihanna posted a picture from the photoshoot on Instagram, and captioned it: “my son so fine! Idc idc idc!” – with “idc” being an acronym for “I don’t care”.
Reacting to the caption, some users began objecting to the “Work” singer describing her son as “fine”.
One person wrote: “Ok I love RiRi but her calling her son fine don’t sit right with me.”
“What do you mean your son is ‘fine?’” another asked, while a third comment similarly read: “He’s cute not (fine) THAT’S A BABY MAM.”
Rihanna then started replying to similar comments, as fans also defended the singer over the “strange” criticism.
In response to an Instagram user who said they know Rihanna “did not just say fine”, she commented: “AF” or “as f***”.
“Who calls a baby fine?” one comment read, under which Rihanna replied: “His mother”.
“Fine!? More like cute, adorable...he’s not a grown man, lol,” another person wrote, to which Rihanna’s reply read: “You just keep your lil cougar paws off away from him and we good!”
“Now I get why she stayed out of the spotlight for so long. Social media is BEYOND toxic these days,” one user reacted to the backlash Rihanna received in the comments.
Another said: “You never heard elders call kids a ‘fine young man’ or a “fine young lady”. Y’all have [f***ing] lost it man. Sexualising kids y’all need to get help in these comments.”
Rihanna has not announced her son’s name yet.
During her Vogue interview, Rihanna explained why she performed at the Super Bowl despite turning the opportunity down four years ago in solidarity with former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick alleged he was blacklisted from the NFL after taking the knee during NFL games in 2016.
In her first interview since the Super Bowl show, Rihanna told the publication: “There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes, but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.”
