Rihanna says it 'took a while' for ASAP Rocky to get out of the 'friend zone'

• Rihanna opened up about her relationship with A$AP Rocky during a new interview with Vogue.
• "I certainly took a while to get over how much I know him," she said of their longtime friendship.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were friends long before they began dating — but the "Work" singer said it wasn't easy for her to make that transition.

"People don't get out of the friend zone very easily with me," Rihanna revealed in a new cover story for Vogue's May 2022 issue.

"I certainly took a while to get over how much I know him and how much he knows me, because we also know how much trouble we can land each other in," she continued.

The two musicians have been close since at least 2012, when they performed together at the MTV Video Music Awards. During the live show, Rocky put his hand on Rihanna's butt, which she said was unexpected.

"He grabbed my ass on stage. That was not part of the rehearsal!" she told Vogue. "I was like, 'What are you doing!?'"

But Rihanna said she decided to let it go, which shocked her team: "My manager was like, 'Oh, God, she must like this guy a little bit. She never lets this shit slide.'"

The Fenty Beauty founder also revealed their romance became serious at the beginning of the pandemic — particularly in the summer of 2020 when they took a cross-country road trip together in a tour bus.

"He became my family in that time," she told Vogue.

According to editor Chioma Nnadi, "They'd park and Rihanna would grill barefoot while Rocky tie-dyed T-shirts picked up at the gas station," and, "No matter where they stopped, they always had fun."

Around that time, Rihanna recruited Rocky for her Fenty Skin campaign. Fans noticed sparks flying when they filmed a promotional video for Vogue, published in August 2020, in which the rapper said the hardest part of working with Rihanna "is not having too much fun."

"I love the simple things but also the grand adventures," Rihanna told Nnadi of their relationship. "There's no pretentious my-brand-your-brand bullshit, it's just us living."

"I can do any part of life by his side," she added.

Just a few months after their road trip, Rihanna took Rocky home to Barbados to meet her family. She said her mom was "charmed by him from the jump," despite disapproving of her daughter's past boyfriends.

In January of this year, the couple revealed they're expecting their first child. Rihanna said they weren't necessarily planning to start a family, but "certainly not planning against it."

"What I love the most about us? Transparency with everything: how we're feeling, what our goals are, what our fears and insecurities are," she revealed. "The vulnerability to be able to say what you feel about each other."