A publicist who claimed to have worked with Rihanna now claims that he deliberately started leaking stories about the BBHM singer and Jay Z having an affair back in 2005 for publicity.
That publicist, Jonathan Hay, claims in the book that he worked with “Pon de Replay” writer and producer Vada Nobles and planted the Jay Z stories to make sure Rihanna’s first single became a hit.
Page Six reports that both Rihanna’s legal representatives and Nobles deny this. Rihanna’s lawyer, Jordan Siev, told the paper, “Hay was never Rihanna’s publicist or had any personal or professional relationship with her.” Hay then clarified that he wasn’t Rihanna’s publicist, but rather, a publicist for her first single.
Nobles cleared it up for good, “I met this guy once, maybe twice … He had nothing to do with Rihanna,” the producer said, “He was using my name and what I was doing to get traction himself.”