Following the exclusive photos shared by Hollywood Unlocked, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky revealed their baby boy’s first look on TikTok. But it seems the move was not entirely planned. HU founder Jason Lee explained on Twitter paparazzi had taken photos of the couple’s child without their consent and threatened to release them. Rihanna came to him to release the photos as she wanted to avoid the paparazzi from leaking them.
Since the new photos of ASAP and Rihanna’s baby is out let me tell you how this happened. Yesterday she FaceTimed me to tell me that paparazzi took unauthorized photos of their baby and planned to release them. So she said if anyone was going to put it out she wanted me to.
— Jason Lee (@theonlyjasonlee) December 17, 2022
In addition to the photos to HU, Rihanna posted a TikTok of some cute clips of their baby. The couple was able to maintain some privacy with their newborn, as his name is still a secret. With a series of paparazzi images taken in the streets of New York’s Harlem, the couple first revealed the exciting news that they were expecting back in January, and the baby was born on May 13 in Los Angeles.
This was one way for Rihanna to take control of the situation. But paparazzi forcing celebrities to reveal personal details of their lives is not new. Many have expressed their frustration with the rise in tabloid culture. Plenty of other stars like Hilary Duff and George Clooney have raised concerns about paparazzi photos of children.
Actor George Clooney took legal action against a photographer in 2017 who scaled a fence and climbed a tree outside of his home in Italy to photograph his one-and-a-half-month-old twins. Jennifer Garner even delivered a testimony against the paparazzi to the California legislature.
Earlier this year, Blake Lively posted pictures from her pregnancy on Instagram because there were “11 guys waiting outside” to take a photo of her and her children. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard realized they had to do something to protect their young daughters from the “predatory” paparazzi. The couple helped enact a #NoKidsPolicy in 2014. This encouraged media outlets not to buy photos with children in them. The paparazzi would not take the photos since media outlets weren’t buying them. Gigi Hadid once wrote an open letter asking that her daughter’s face be blurred in photos. In India as well, actress Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli sent a note to the paparazzi fraternity in Mumbai and urged them not to click photos of their daughter.
