Rihanna's Lawyer Says Singer 'Has Never Met' Man Who Claims He Was Her Publicist
ByLast week, Jonathan Hay, a man claiming to be a former publicist of Rihanna, owned up to leaking stories about the pop singer and Jay Z having an affair.
"The pr stunt that I did was out of desperation to help break 'Pon de Replay'," Jonathan Hay wrote in his statement to The New York Daily News. "It was reckless and I didn't think it was going to work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick."
However, the Bajan queen's legal team denies this. In fact, they told US Weekly that RihRih doesn't even know the guy.
"Mr. Hay never represented Ms. Fenty, and never had (and does not now have) any personal or professional relationship with Ms. Fenty. In fact, Ms. Fenty has never met Mr. Hay . . .references to Mr. Hay as formerly representing Ms. Fenty in any capacity are false," Rihanna's lawyer Jordan Siev said.
After Siev's claims, Page Six reached out to Hay, the man who said he worked with Rihanna back in 2005, before she became famous.
"I wasn't Rihanna's publicist, I was [the] publicist for her first single. She didn't have a publicist . . . It was back in the day, she was nobody," Hay told Page Six.
Oh, O.K. However, Hay's statement was debunked by Vada Nobles, the man who co-wrote and co-produced Rihanna's breakout hit "Pon de Replay."
"I met this guy once, maybe twice . . . I did not hire Jonathan Hay to promote Rihanna [or] 'Pon de Replay' . . . He had nothing to do with Rihanna," Nobles told Page Six. "Someone I knew referred this guy [to me as a publicist], I said, 'Let's see what he can do' . . . He was using my name and what I was doing to get traction for himself."
This whole ordeal could ruin Hay's current undertakings.
He told The Daily News he was releasing projects with his label Urban Hitchcock through Tidal, a company that is owned by Jay Z and Beyoncé.