Rihanna’s Ex-Publicist Says He Was ‘Desperate’ & ‘So Angry’ At Jay-Z When He Planted Rumors Rihanna & Jay-Z Were Having An Affair In The Early 2000s: ‘I Was Like ‘F*ck Jay-Z”

Rihanna, Jay-Z, Jonathan Hay

Rihanna’s Ex-Publicist Says He Was ‘Desperate’ & ‘So Angry’ At Jay-Z When He Planted Rumors Rihanna & Jay-Z Were Having An Affair In The Early 2000s: ‘I Was Like ‘F*ck Jay-Z”

Rihanna’s former publicist, Jonathan Hay, is sharing his truth.

Many might recall in the earlier days of the Grammy winner’s career, she was rumored to be having an affair with Jay-Z amid his marriage to Beyoncé. The speculation created quite a stir and has now resurfaced thanks to a new documentary surrounding the 2011 death of Jay-Z’s alleged mistress, Cathy “Kori” White. 

Titled The Disturbing Death of JAY-Z’s Mistress, the 49-minute Trap Lore Ross project was released on YouTube this month and has amassed more than 800,000 views as of publication. It raises questions about the cause of Cathy “Kori” White’s death after she was said to have died of a brain aneurysm. In her final days, she allegedly told Jay-Z that she was pregnant with his child. At the same time, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were expecting their eldest child, now 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy. 

Beyonce, Jay Z

As for how Jonathan Hay has re-entered the picture, he was name-dropped in the documentary after he previously confessed that he planted the infamous affair rumor between Rihanna and Jay-Z in an effort to get the “Umbrella” singer more publicity. (He was the publicist for Rihanna’s breakout hit “Pon De Replay,” which was released in 2005.

He spoke to All Hip Hop about the decision and confessed he was upset with Jay-Z and didn’t care about the consequences.

“When I executed this controversial publicity and marketing campaign for Rihanna’s debut single, she was an unknown artist and I was hungry for a hit, and I knew that ‘Pon de Replay’ was a special song. I had direct access to JAY-Z back then from working with Amil, the female rap artist on a couple of JAY-Z’s biggest hit records at the time.”

Jonathan Hay explained,

“Industry executive Kevin Skinner, who was in a high-profile legal battle with Whitney Houston, was the person who introduced me to the debut Rihanna project and to one of the ‘Pon de Replay’ producers. I was hired to promote ‘Pon de Replay’ and I wrote Rihanna’s first press release. I devised a plan to pitch Rihanna as JAY-Z’s latest protégé on Def Jam to MTV News. I reached out to my contact at MTV and she published a small news item on Rihanna on March 17, 2005, which was RiRi’s first big press.”

Still, the news didn’t gain much traction, which shocked Hay, he said.

“This initial trigger set everything in motion, and I tried to utilize the MTV press link to promote ‘Pon de Replay’ to other media sources. There was nobody bigger than MTV at that time, but even still, no other press was picking up the ‘Pon de Replay’ story and I was striking out left and right.

He admitted he was “desperate” and “so angry at JAY-Z,”

“As he was more focused on Teairra Marí and there was all this talk that he was pursuing a rapper named Lady Sovereign, who he ended up signing months later. Not to mention, JAY-Z was constantly dissing Amil, who had quit the music industry and was living in North Carolina at the time raising her children.”

Hay broke down how his tactic worked, adding,

“So I was like f*ck JAY-Z, since he won’t give us any attention and he’s being disrespectful to Amil, who was a single mother. I’m going to get his attention and be disrespectful back to JAY-Z, as Rihanna was the best thing on Def Jam by far. I thought JAY-Z was a dirtbag, so I put out the story that JAY-Z was in a love triangle with Rihanna and Beyoncé—and that caught fire, sparked conversation, increased radio airplay, press coverage and other forms of attention. I was in an unapologetic ‘by any means necessary’ state of mind.”

Rihanna

Though the media was paying attention, to Hay’s surprise, so were the authorities, as Rihanna was underage at the time. He recalled,

“One day, unmarked law enforcement cars stopped me. These intimidating individuals introduced themselves as a federal task force and they requested to speak with me, so I followed them to talk and I was in a complete state of panic. As I sat in the desolate/makeshift interrogation room, the gravity of the situation became clear to me.”

“They mentioned that they had been keeping a close watch on JAY-Z since he stabbed Lance ‘Un’ Rivera and he was also being implicated in a violent incident with R. Kelly during their joint tour, promoting JAY-Z and R. Kelly’s joint album. The officers clarified that they were investigating JAY-Z for allegedly engaging in sexual activity with underage Rihanna and transporting her across international borders. They said she wasn’t the only one and there were many others.”

Jay-Z

Authorities were prepared to charge Jay-Z, Hay said, and he tried to convince them the romance was all a lie, however, they didn’t 100 percent believe him.

“No one benefits from reckless ambition. The interrogation was a brutal reality check. However, looking back now, there are some serious red flags, as JAY-Z was once very close to R. Kelly and they have two collaborative albums. They have like 30 songs together, and they have toured together. As we all know, JAY-Z has also been extremely close to Diddy for several decades, so it’s not very hard to come to some of the conclusions that Trap Lore Ross and Jaguar Wright have come to with JAY-Z.”

Rihanna

He ultimately was asked to issue an apology to both Rihanna and Jay-Z and, as he put it, “fall on the sword.” Still, he still accuses Jay-Z of not holding up his end of the deal.

“I was told to issue statements about Rihanna and JAY-Z and I was to take full blame, again, also falling on the sword. JAY-Z’s team was supposed to return the favor and help me with some serious TIDAL promotions, but he never did. There were so many CEO changes at the time at TIDAL it was hard to keep up. I was shocked that JAY-Z nor his team followed through with the agreement.”

He concluded by denying that the rumor caused any issues in Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s marriage, insisting that Jay-Z created those issues himself.

Also, let’s be real, the Rihanna publicity stunt did not cause problems for JAY-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship, and I’m tired of hearing that nonsense. JAY-Z caused problems in his relationship.”

What are your thoughts on Jonathan Hay’s revelation? Comment and let us know.