Back in 2015, Rihanna was known among her most ardent followers to be spending time with Travis Scott (real name Jacques Webster II). With the Navy less than thrilled with the pairing, the seriousness of the relationship was often debated with some pointing to Scott’s inclusion on her 2016 Anti album as evidence it was a business-only pairing.
While Rihanna (real name Robyn Rihanna Fenty) and Scott fanned further chatter with a steamy Puma campaign in September 2015 with multiple publications describing them as dating, publicly they never claimed each other. Their attempts to keep things low key were blown sky high when then Complex writer Lawrence Schlossman brought details of their relationship out into the light in a December 2015 cover story.
In the introduction to the cover story, Schlossman detailed his travails in connecting with Scott, who was in the midst of promoting his debut album Rodeo. At one point, according to Schlossman, Travis skipped out on a planned interview because “he’s holed up with Rihanna, his recently rumored love interest/girlfriend/friend-with-benefit. What exactly they’re doing upstairs (smoking, [expletive], working, playing charades) I have no idea, but it’s more important than any interview, and I don’t necessarily disagree.”
When the two finally met up, Scott resisted describing his relationship with Rihanna but when pushed described her as “creating, inspiring” and “muse.”
Schlossman also described a moment in the interview when Scott caressed a photo of Rihanna on his phone. In the article, Schlossman wrote, “[Scott kissed] his right index and middle finger and then [touched] the low-res image of Rihanna’s face, caressing the screen, and glowing with pride.”
In a recent episode of his “Throwing Fits” podcast, Schlossman revealed Scott was upset that the magazine revealed so many details about Rihanna in the article.
On the podcast, Schlossman explained, “I broke the news about him and Rihanna, which they told me not to do. Apparently, what [Complex editor Joe] La Puma, our boy Joe La Puma, told me was that it hurt Complex’s relationship with Travis.”
However, the issue wasn’t that Scott’s personal life was blown up it was more so that Rihanna was irritated by the exposure. Schlossman said, “It’s not because he’s like, ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m smashing Rihanna.’ It’s because Rihanna’s like, ‘Don’t tell anyone that I’m smashing Travis Scott, please!’ [It’s] obviously embarrassing as [expletive].”
While Schlossman assumed Rihanna was embarrassed by the association with Scott, it’s just as likely the famously private entertainer was more so irritated that the details of her private interactions with him were discussed in a very public way.
