Rihanna: 'Kemp Is My Boyfriend'

RIHANNA has confirmed baseball star MATT KEMP is her boyfriend after months of insisting the loved-up pair was not an item.

Reports of a romance spread in January (10) when the singer and the Los Angeles Dodgers star holidayed together in Mexico.

They were then spotted at parties and basketball games together - but Rihanna was eager to report she was single the whole time, and insisted she and Kemp were "just good friends".

Kemp then threw the star a party in Arizona in February (10) to celebrate her 22nd birthday, but she maintained, "I'm not dating anyone. I'm single."

And Kemp continued the ruse by telling reporters he had no time for romance: "I can't get distracted by that. When it's time to play baseball, that's my job. No distractions. Rihanna is just a friend, a good friend of mine."

But now the romance is out in the open as the Dodgers season gets underway and Rihanna plans to tour with Ke$ha.

The Umbrella singer revealed the truth during a chat with Los Angeles DJ Ryan Seacrest on his radio show on Thursday (08Apr10).

She said, "He's my boyfriend... It's new and it's fun and it's nothing too serious. I don't want anything nuts that's gonna take up so much of my energy and time in a bad way."

Kemp is the singer's first serious boyfriend since she split up with R&B star Chris Brown in 2009. Brown was charged with assaulting the singer during a fight after a pre-Grammy Awards party.