Sunday, 5 October 2008

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Rihanna: I grew up with a dad on crack

Singer reveals she had a difficult upbringing

Rihanna says seeing her dad on drugs has put her off them for life

Rihanna says growing up in Barbados was tough – living with a dad on drink and drugs.

‘My dad was part of that Sixties generation who took drugs as a matter of course,’ she says.

‘But his partying got way out of hand, spiralled out of control.’

The R&B singer, 20, says her father left when she was 9, but she continued to look up to him until she hit puberty.

‘It was only in my teenage years that I started to get angry at him, maybe even hated him,’ she tells Live magazine. ‘I started to realise that no child should have to experience what I’d been through.’

They have since reconciled, and dad, Ronald, is repentant.

‘I will never forgive myself for what I did to my daughter,’ he says. ‘Unlike other dads who help their children with homework, I was out on street corners scoring more drugs.’

Isobel Smith