For most, announcing a new pregnancy is calling friends with a test in hand, or posting a picture of the ultrasound scan on Instagram – perhaps even a garden photoshoot if you’re feeling a bit extra. For Rihanna? That doesn’t even enter her mind. Oh no, the coolest celebrity of all must of course announce on the most photographed red carpet of the year: the Met Gala.

As the final arrival of the night, Rihanna debuted her bump in head-to-toe Marc Jacobs, created in collaboration with Stephen Jones. Just hours earlier, she was photographed bump-out arriving at the Carlyle Hotel in a Miu Miu dress by friend and collaborator Miles Diggs

It’s the kind of pregnancy reveal that would appear to take months of planning to capture correctly, but in true Rihanna fashion, it wasn’t that calculated. ‘No planning went into it whatsoever!’ Diggs tells Grazia. ‘Although it was a matter of when [we would reveal], not if, it just happened on the fly shockingly. As she raced to get to her hotel for the Met Gala so that she could get into glam, traffic was at a dead stop standstill, and as I ran to get into position for the shot at the last possible second, a sudden calm came over everything as the rain poured down and she calmly strode up Madison Avenue like a complete boss.’

‘As much as I would love to take credit, Rihanna is the visionary,’ Diggs continues. ‘Sometimes the simplicity and beauty of something happening in the moment makes it even more special, but also there’s more pressure to perform no matter the circumstances… including a torrential downpour in the middle of Met Monday!’

Rumours circulated prior to the reveal that something big was coming, but Diggs says Rihanna’s first pregnancy announcement – which he also photographed in Harlem, New York in 2022 – was much higher stakes. ‘We’ve been down this road so it’s not unchartered territory keeping the secret, the first time around was much more frightening – there were so many close calls.’

The latest addition will be Rihanna’s third child with partner A$AP Rocky, with whom she also shares RZA, three and Riot, 21 months. ‘It feels amazing,’ Rocky told reporters on the Met Gala carpet. ‘I’m glad everybody’s happy for us, because we’re definitely happy.’

Having three under three is certainly a mean parenting feat, but Rihanna is all for the challenge. ‘I’ll have as many [children] as God wants me to have,’ she said in February, adding that she wants a girl next ‘but of course if it’s another boy, it’s another boy.’

Last month, she opened up about her children’s personalities in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, saying. ‘RZA is just an empath. He’s so magical. He loves music. He loves books. He loves water. Bath time, swimming, pool, beach, anything. And Riot, he’s just hilarious. When he wakes up, he starts to squeal, scream. Not in a crying way. He just wants to sing. And I’m like, “Okay, here we go!” He’s my alarm in the morning!

But a third baby isn’t the only new challenge Rihanna is taking on right now. She recently revealed she’s close to releasing her ninth studio album – eight years after her last release. ‘I feel like I’ve finally cracked it,’ she explained. ‘This is becoming my new freedom, because when I’m in the studio, I know that my time away from my kids is to blossom something that hasn’t been watered in eight years… It’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible. It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now.’

With initial rumours that Rihanna could even be touring this summer, it seems fans might’ve got ahead of themselves on that front – but after a heavy start to the year, the budding excitement around Rihanna’s personal and professional life is a welcome change for the now family of five. In January, Rocky was on trial for two felony assault charges, later acquitted in a viral moment that saw the rapper leap across the stands into the arms of an emotional Rihanna.

‘I’m thankful and feel blessed to be here right now, to be a free man talking to you all,’ Rocky said after his not guilty verdict, with his lawyer Joe Tacopina also revealing that Rocky had initially told Rihanna not to come to court, but she ignored him. ‘He wanted to protect her,’ Tacopina said. ‘But she spoke to me and said, “Joe, I know he doesn’t want me there, but I’m coming. That’s my partner. That’s the father of my kids. I’m coming.”’

It’s RiRi and Rocky – and as many kids with R names they can have – against the world!