Rihanna heals rift with father

Rihanna has mended her long-running feud with her estranged father.

The 22-year-old beauty - whose strained relationship with former drug addict Ronald Fenty worsened after he spoke to the media about her assault at the hands of then-boyfriend Chris Brown in February 2009 - reconciled with her parent in her native Barbados over the festive period.

Ronald, 57, said: "I saw her twice before Christmas and she came to see me on Christmas Day (25.12.10). She showered me with gifts, a lot of stuff, many shirts and cologne. She's always really generous."

Though Ronald knows he can never be as close to the 'Russian Roulette' hitmaker as he once was, he is happy to be her "friend" again.

He said: "Maybe we're not as close as we were when she was growing up here and was at school. But we are blood, we do not stay angry and we are friends again."

Rihanna originally fell out with her dad after he turned up drunk to one of her shows and trashed her tour bus in 2008, and Ronald - who has now given up alcohol - admits he was not surprised by how he was treated in the immediate aftermath by his feisty daughter.

He explained to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We did have a disagreement about the drinking on the tour. I got plastered on the tour bus. I can drink rum or beer but vodka does not like me - or gin.

"She blasted me for that - she was always lippy from her small days. I was picked up from the hotel in the morning and I was just shuttled to the airport."

Rihanna has previously revealed her childhood was blighted by her dad Ronald's drug problems and eventual split from her mother when she was 14.