RIHANNA AND HER partner ASAP Rocky have welcomed a new baby girl and her middle name is Irish. 

Announcing the birth of her third child in a post in Instagram last night, Rihanna captioned the photo of her holding her new daughter: 

“Rocki Irish Mayers – Sept 13 2025.” 

A second photo shows two baby-sized pink boxing gloves. 

The couple announced their pregnancy during the Met Gala in May, where Rihanna appeared in a pinstripe look and a huge hat, her baby bump on display.

Rocky, 36, who served as a gala co-chairman, told reporters: “It’s time that we show the people what we was cooking up. And I’m glad everybody’s happy for us ’cause we definitely happy, you know.”

The couple has a track record for starry pregnancy announcements, with Rihanna emerging on the 2023 Super Bowl stage with a baby bump on full display.

Their son, Riot Rose, was born later that year.

The couple welcomed their first child, RZA, in May 2022. They first made their relationship public in 2020.

The birth comes just months after ASAP Rocky was acquitted on firearms charges in Los Angeles in February. He leapt with joy into Rihanna’s arms when the verdict was read. She was consistently present during the trial and brought their two sons to the closing arguments.

A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has 14 number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including We Found Love, Work, Umbrella and Disturbia. She founded the makeup brand Fenty Beauty in 2017.

ASAP Rocky began his career in 2011 with the hip-hop collective ASAP Mob and released his first studio album, Live, Love, A$AP, in 2013, when it debuted at number one. He has been nominated for two Grammys and recently starred alongside Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest.

With reporting from Press Association

A NUMBER OF Dublin councillors will boycott a ceremony that will see Barack Obama conferred with the Freedom of the City today. 

The former US president will receive the highest and most prestigious award Dublin City can bestow from Lord Mayor Ray McAdam in the Mansion House.

But there are mixed views on whether Obama should be awarded it due to measures he took as president, including the authorisation of drone strikes and large scale deportations.

In a statement, the Independent Group on Dublin City Council – Cieran Perry, Nial Ring, John Lyons, Mannix Flynn, Pat Dunne and Kevin Breen – called on those invited to boycott the event. 

They said this was due to Obama’s support for “the terrorist regime in Israel, his murderous foreign policy in Libya, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere and his expanded deportation programme during his terms of office”.

“We consider him a war criminal,” the group said. 

They said Obama’s administration granted Israel a military aid package of $38 billion in 2015 – the highest ever aid package from the US to any country – despite the country’s “war crimes in Gaza and relentless settlement expansion”.

“His administration objected to Palestine joining the International Criminal Court and opposed any ICC investigation of grave crimes by Israeli officials,” they added. 

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy said he has refused an invitation to attend the event and encouraged Dubliners to join “any protests that may be called” around the ceremony. 

Reddy said Obama is ”not a symbol of peace or freedom but of US imperialism and war”.

To roll out the red carpet for him in Dublin, at a time when Palestinians are being slaughtered with US weapons, is shameful.

Dublin City councillors decided in 2017 to confer Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with the honour following a close vote.

Councillors voted 30 to 23, with four abstentions, in favour of granting the award. 

On Friday, Obama will take part in an interview in Dublin’s 3Arena with Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole.