*Rihanna has addressed the conversation surrounding her latest Vogue profile and the writer of the piece who showed up to the interview unprepared.
Abby Aguirre, the LA-based writer behind RiRi’s latest Vogue cover story was hit with backlash over her admission that she had gone into the interview without any questions prepared.
Normally I bring a list of questions, but I didn’t have time to prepare one, which I make a split-second decision to confess. “I’m winging it, so you have to help me,” I say nervously. Rihanna flashes a grin that is somehow both reassuring and mischievous. “Aren’t we all?” she says.
Aguirre explained on Twitter that her sit-down with Rihanna was pushed up on short notice, which is why she didn’t have time to prepare a solid list of questions.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Texas Police Face Backlash After Killing Black Woman Inside Her Bedroom During Welfare Check [VIDEO]
GUYS. I was driving to Trader Joe’s in sweatpants when I got the call and literally had to flip a bitch. I research my subjects to death. *Especially* Rihanna. I appreciate the anger behind the reaction. But this is a misunderstanding, for which I take full responsibility.
— Abby Aguirre (@abby_aguirre) October 9, 2019
“GUYS. I was driving to Trader Joe’s in sweatpants when I got the call and literally had to flip a bitch. I research my subjects to death. *Especially* Rihanna. I appreciate the anger behind the reaction. But this is a misunderstanding, for which I take full responsibility,” Abby wrote on Twitter.
“I had literally no notice. The point was to convey how nerve-wracking this was, given my deep, bordering-on-psychotic reverence for Rihanna,” she added.
I had literally no notice. The point was to convey how nerve-wracking this was, given my deep, bordering-on-psychotic reverence for Rihanna.
— Abby Aguirre (@abby_aguirre) October 9, 2019
But Rihanna’s Navy (the name of her fanbase) was having none of Abby’s excuses. One fan wrote on Twitter, “Knowing the year Rihanna was having, knowing that you work for Vogue and had the potential to be assigned the piece more delicacy could’ve been paid here to ensure that the piece harolded her instead of being about how inconvenienced you were by her. The victim hood was palpable.”
Knowing the year Rihanna was having, knowing that you work for Vogue and had the potential to be assigned the piece more delicacy could’ve been paid here to ensure that the piece harolded her instead of being about how inconvenienced you were by her. The victim hood was palpable
— iMANi ROSE? (@ItsIMANIrose) October 9, 2019
At the celebration for her new coffee-table book, titled “Rihanna,” on Friday night in New York, the singer and cosmetics/fashion mogul seemed surprised that Aguirre was at the center of controversy over the Vogue feature. When Rihanna learned that fans and journalists were coming for Aguirre’s head for noting in her profile that she was “winging it,” RiRi was quick to praise Abby for how she handled the interview.
“Wait, wait, what?” Rihanna said, on the red carpet. “No, no, no, no. That’s gangster. For you to get a call the day before being like, ‘Hey, Rihanna’s in L.A., you wanna do this?’ And show up on the dime and write an incredible article that I’m really proud of and enjoyed reading? She’s badass for that.”
She continued: “If you don’t have to prepare, girl, you’re gangster.”
Meanwhile, when asked why she decided to release a “visual autobiography” rather than a memoir, the singer explained to WWD she didn’t write a full book.
“And my fans are young and they’ve got ADD; they’d rather look at pictures than read, let’s be real,” she said. “But it’s something that we both can enjoy. I get to share these moments in a visual way. These are moments that my fans either have been a part of, can relate to, or haven’t had access to. So it’s a combination of me and them and sharing my memories and my life, some of which they’ve been there for, a lot of which they’ve seen evolve before their eyes.”
Rihanna’s self-titled coffee table book hits shelves Tuesday.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
