The Irish bodyguard who’s suing Rihanna and his role as ‘healer’
Defamation case man was singer’s ‘reiki therapist’
HE IS the previously unknown bodyguard who captured headlines worldwide this week with a defamation case against R&B superstar Rihanna.
But now, the Irish Mail On Sunday can reveal that Irish man Geoffrey Keating was hired by Rihanna to use reiki to ‘heal’ her after the violent break-up of her relationship with singer Chris Brown.
Reiki is a Japanese form of therapy in which the practitioner is believed to channel energy into the patient for well-being.
Geoff, from Finglas, is suing the 26-year-old singer for alleged defamation, claiming that she has gravely injured his reputation and business.
In papers lodged in the High Court in Dublin this week, Mr Keating alleges that Rihanna made false statements that were ‘ nauseatingly offensive’ about him in an email last year, which he said was sent to him and his partner Dana.
He also claims that she made similar statements to his sister.
Although later appointed as her minder, he first got in contact with Rihanna after being told about him by her guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, who befriended Keating when he played with rockers Extreme.
A friend said: ‘Geoff plays guitar himself; he is mad into the band Extreme and he is a wellknown healer and medium around Finglas.
‘He started hanging out with Nuno, who was gigging with Rihanna, and he told her all about Geoff’s psychic and healing abilities.’
The friend added; ‘Rihanna was going through a very difficult time after the break-up with Chris Brown in 2009 and she got in touch with him online. He had been giving her advice over the phone and internet before being invited to attend her concerts.
‘They became friends that way and she really liked him and his family, so it just went from there.’
Mr Keating, his partner Dana Kavanagh and their four children went to several of her gigs before he got a job as her head of security in 2012. ‘He doesn’t go to the gym or anything like that’ said a pal. ‘He got the job because of the reiki and
healing.
‘They spoke regularly on the phone and on the internet and he was always putting up pictures of them together online.’
In December 2012, Rihanna even recorded a special Christmas video message for the pupils of St Finian’s School in Finglas ahead of a
‘Rihanna is into healing and they just clicked’
number of their performances of her songs. One of Geoff’s daughters attends the school and the video was played before the show.
The friend said: ‘Rihanna is really into spirituality and healing and her and Geoff just really clicked. He even became friends with her dad Ronald and they hung out at the gigs together and he also met Geoff and his partner and children a few times. ‘Everyone really liked him’. Between 2012 and 2013, Geoff accompanied the singer on tours all over Europe including Paris, Manchester, Dublin and Antwerp.
He got a large tattoo of his idol Bettencourt on his stomach during their tour together. Geoff also struck up a friendship with Chris Brown after he rekindled his relationship with Rihanna in 2013. In 2009 Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting her.
Rihanna sent gifts of Mac cosmetics and shoes from her shoe line in River Island to Geoff’s partner Dana and signed merchandise to his kids.
But the singer fell out spectacularly with Geoff last year.
While both sides have remained tight-lipped over the row, this week’s lawsuit indicates an irreparable split. On April 20, Dana uploaded a song by Chris Brown, ‘Loyal’, on her Facebook page and wrote: ‘Says it all really.’