Rihanna and A$AP Rocky Are Proof: Sometimes You Meet The Right Person At The Wrong Time

When it comes to lasting love, you don’t always get the chance to lock it down A$AP. Just like Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, A$AP Rocky and Rihanna had been friends for literal years before they became a couple. The two are now expecting their first child together.

The pair were first linked all the way back in 2013 after Rihanna starred as the rapper’s love interest in his “Fashion Killa” music video. A$AP shut down the rumors, telling Distractify: “I don’t even look at her like that. She’s sexy, but I’m good.”

In the years that followed, the two remained friends. They continued to bond over one another’s shared love of fashion during Paris Fashion Week. They also supported each other’s careers to the point that A$AP even attended the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Awards alongside Rihanna in 2019, where Fenty was nominated (and won) an award.

The exact timeline of when Rihanna and A$AP Rocky went from friends to dating is uncertain, at least publicly, but rumors picked back up around January 2020 after The Sun reported they were starting to develop a relationship following Rihanna’s split from businessman Hassan Jameel.

But it wasn’t until an interview with GQ in May 2021 that A$AP Rocky officially confirmed he was dating Rihanna, referring to her as “my lady” and “the love of my life,” a sharp shift from his 2013 comments about the singer and businesswoman, someone he had previously thought of as his friend and nothing more. So what happened?

To put it simply: Sometimes, you meet the right person at the wrong time.

Just like Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, you are not the same person you were in 2013 (or maybe even yesterday). Things change. You change. What you wanted at 24 usually looks a lot different than what you want at 28. This is true for many things in life, but especially what you seek romantically.

For example, maybe at 24 you were fresh out of a relationship and wanted to be single for the time being. Even if you did meet someone you could spend the rest of your life with, you probably would have looked past them because you weren’t paying attention. That’s not what you were looking for, nor was it what you needed.

But then maybe you meet them again at 28. You had your fun the past few years, you did what you needed to do to heal, and now you catch their eye across the bar. This time, something’s different. You’ve changed, they’ve changed, but mostly the timing is now aligned.

Sometimes, you aren’t ready to love someone and they’re not in a place to love you either. But sometimes, if you’re lucky, life gives you another chance to get it right.