Rihanna Defends Her Use of Foul Word

Naive Rihanna had no idea the foul four-letter 'C' word was so offensive until her make-up artist had to beg her stop using it as a term of endearment.

The Umbrella singer insists locals in her native Barbados use the slangword for female genitalia frequently - and she was stunned when she learned exactly what it meant as her career took off.

The superstar tells the new issue of Britain's Vogue magazine, "That word is so offensive to everyone in the world except for Bajans. You know African-Americans use the N-word to their brothers? Well, that's the way we use the C-word. When I first came here, I was saying it like it was nothing, like, 'Hey, c**t', until my make-up artist finally had to tell me to stop".

But, despite the fact that Rihanna now knows the word offends, she's still using it - she was photographed wearing a necklace with 'c**t' spelled out as the pendant during a visit to a sacred site in Brazil last month(Sep11).