Rihanna says she was bullied at school - for being 'white'

Singer Rihanna says she was bullied at school - for being 'white'.

The raunchy star says she was taunted growing up on the Caribbean island of Barbados because she was fair-skinned.

The 19-year-old, who has stunning green eyes, has a black mother from Guyana and a mixed-race father. "I was a little confused as a kid because I grew up with my mum, and my mum is black," she says.

"So I was cultured in a very 'black' way. But when I go to school, I'm getting called 'white'.

"They would look at me and would curse me out. I didn't understand. I just knew I saw people of all different shades and I was light.

"Now I'm in a much bigger world."

Rihanna - who now lives in Los Angeles - was speaking to US magazine, Allure.

Now the singer has the last laugh, fending off rumours that she is dating top Hollywood stars, like Josh Hartnett.

She says: "Don't people know by now that it's a stupid rumour?"

The actor met the singer in the autumn while hosting MTV's Total Request Live show in New York.

But Rihanna insists they are not a couple. "This is what really happened," she says.

"He and my management, they have each other's contact information. I went to [the club] Pink Elephant, and he came by.

"All of a sudden the next day, I'm seeing that we were kissing and hugging up each other.

"You can't even go out with a friend who's a celebrity and have a good time without people making s*** up."

She adds: "I knew this was coming. I don't even know Josh like that.

"It was the first time I met him, and we hung out two nights after at the Pink Elephant. It was wild in there."

The singer who stormed up the charts this summer with the number one single Umbrella doesn't entirely pour cold water on the rumour though. She says:

"Well, at least he's good-looking right?"

Smiling on the cover of the January 2008 edition of Allure, on the pages inside she reveals a difficult childhood.

Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in St Michael, Barbados she witnessed the end of her parents' marriage - a casualty of her father's drug addiction. Her mother Monica, protecting the singer and younger brothers Rajad and Rorrey, tried to shield them from their dad's lifestyle.

Rihanna says: "My mum would take us to see him and he would be in the worst condition.

"She stopped taking us because she didn't want us to see him like that."

Rihanna's parents eventually divorced when the singer was 16. Now sober, her father recently joined her for the Canadian part of her world tour. But the singer's childhood in Barbados still reads like a Cinderella-type-fairytale-come true.

While her mum worked long hours she looked after her brothers, cooking and making sure they did their homework. In the meantime she kept her showbiz dreams alive by singing Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston songs in the shower.

But some of her neighbours weren't a willing audience. She says: "They'd complain to my other neighbour, who was very close to my mum, so we always got the message: 'I'm so loud'.

"But we didn't really care. They can't tell me what to do in my house."

In her early teens the Bajan beauty put her singing skills to good use by joining a girl group. One of her classmates was connected to American songwriter and producer Evan Rogers who helped to shape Christina Aguilera's successful career.

When Rogers went to Barbados on holiday in 2003 Rihanna, then 15, auditioned for him at his hotel. He invited her to New York where she recorded a demo tape, which fell into the hands of rapper Jay-Z. The music mogul wanted her to get on a plane within 24 hours so he could meet her. "My whole body started to shake," Rihanna says when she heard the news.

"You don't really understand what it's like for me to have any kind of contact with Jay-Z. In Barbados?

"Try to picture being in such a small country, so far away. You never see celebrities - there's not a chance.

"So to have Jay-Z even hear my demo was a big deal.

"But for him to want to meet me...I just could not believe it. I fell to the floor. I could not even scream."

She couldn't scream but she could sing. In 2005 Jay-Z's prot?g? left Barbados and signed with music label Def Jam.

Pon De Replay, her first hit soon followed and Rolling Stone Magazine compared Rihanna to her mentor's girlfriend Beyonc? Knowles. Their review of her debut album Music of the Sun said the Barbadian beauty was "what Beyonc? might have sounded like if she had grown up in the West Indies."

Rihanna has since had the hit SOS and sung with Justin Timberlake. But it is the song Umbrella that became a worldwide hit - clinging on to the UK number one spot for 10 weeks - that made her a global smash.

Grateful that other singers like Mary J Blige and allegedly Britney Spears turned the song down, Rihanna says: "A lot of songs people pass on, and then I hear them, and I'm like: 'What were they thinking? Give that to me'."

The singer says she was willing "to do anything" to get Umbrella. She says: "I felt like the song was mine."

Rihanna has also set herself apart from other female performers by drastically changing her hairstyle. Now sporting curly shoulder-length black hair the teen originally hit the music scene with long honey-colored tresses.

But the night before shooting the cover for her Good Girl Gone Bad album - without seeking her label or manager's permission - she asked her hairstylist to chop her hair off and dye it raven black. Rihanna's hair went from Beyonce-ish curls hanging down the middle of her back to a chin-length severe bob. "The label didn't want me to do this look," says the singer about her much-copied style. But cutting my hair, it made me stand out as an artist.

"I don't care who likes it - this is me.

"My friends still live in Barbados, and they let me know that everyone asks for the 'Rihanna haircut',"

The patient star is also not troubled by the ignorance of others who know little about her homeland of Barbados. "People ask me the most na?ve questions," Rihanna says. Someone asked me if we have indoor toilets."

She also says she had to explain to a New York cab driver that there are roads on the island. But one thing she is most courteous about is signing autographs and taking time out for her fans.

Rihanna says: "The hardest thing for me is say 'no'. I feel like a bitch. But sometimes I don't have a choice."