After her iconic Super Bowl performance that sent social media into meltdown, fans began speculating if Rihanna is pregnant again.
On February 12, 2023, the Barbadian queen stepped out onto the football field to perform a medley of all her greatest hits during the Half Time show. She was dressed in a red jumpsuit that was unzipped to the hips and secured by a belt as she dazzled the crowd from atop a floating platform. Her body shape coupled with the fact that she wasn’t super active on stage led thousands of viewers to suspect she was expecting her second child.
Rihanna and her boyfriend A$AP Rocky welcomed their first child, a son, on May 13, 2022, according to TMZ. A source told Us Weekly said that the Fenty Beauty founder would love to bring her little one to her home country. “Rihanna would love to bring him to Barbados soon to meet her relatives. Right now, they are just spending precious time together with their little bundle of love,” the source said. “They have some help but Rihanna has always said she wants to be hands-on. She’s a very caring person and very nurturing.”
Is Rihanna pregnant again?
Rihanna. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Is Rihanna pregnant again? Yes, her representatives confirmed the news to Rolling Stone that she’s expecting her second child. Fans were sent into overdrive thanks to her body language on the Super Bowl Half Time Show stage; she wasn’t nearly as active as many previous Super Bowl performers and, as her performance came to a close, she appeared to rub her belly before being rushed off stage.
In a press conference for the Super Bowl on February 8, 2023, Rihanna was asked by Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis about how she made the decision to perform at the legendary Half-Time stage. “I was like, ‘You sure? I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this.” But Rihanna said that becoming a mom gave her the energy to take on the big event, especially with her nine-month-old son watching. “When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world — you can do anything. And the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was … there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all,” she said. “It’s important for my son to see that.”
She expressed being nervous ahead of the Super Bowl as she hadn’t “been onstage in seven years.” She said she worked hard during rehearsals, so much so she “totally forgot that my birthday is coming up” on February 20 and she “totally forgot about Valentine’s Day.” She continued, “I am just Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl,” she said. “I have yet to sleep. We were working at the venue all last night … [and] somehow I’m here at a press conference right now.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, she spoke about how the event was a “now or never” opportunity. “Nothing would have gotten me out of the house if it wasn’t a challenge like that,” she said. “You could get real comfortable being at home as a mom, [so this is] challenging myself to do something that I’ve never done before in my career. I have to live up to that challenge.”
When asked about what her plans for the show were, Rihanna said that she wanted to “incorporate a lot of culture” into the show. “I want to incorporate different aspects of entertainment and things that I just enjoy and bring it to the stage,” she said. “I want to celebrate the music that I’ve made.”
Her potential pregnancy announcement comes less than a year after she and boyfriend A$AP Rocky welcomed their first child—whom she’s not really interested in being public with, we don’t even know his name. She told The Washington Post, “We just didn’t get around to it yet really. We’ve just been living. But I guess there’s a certain freedom that comes with kind of just, like, getting it out there.” In the interview, she also revealed that the Super Bowl is the only event in which she wants to do after she gave birth. “If I’m going to leave my baby, I’m going to leave my baby for something special,” she said.
Though keeping the baby’s name a secret, Rihanna revealed her son to the world through the unexpected, TikTok! After keeping her baby away from the public eye for seven months, the “Love on the Brain” singer posted a gentle video of the baby for her first TikTok with the caption, “Hacked.” “You trying to get mommy’s phone? Oh wow…oh wow,” she asked him after exclaiming “Ooh!” We finally get to know whether the baby looks more like Rihanna or A$AP Rocky, and you get to be the judge if he looks more like his mother or father with his adorable face and emotions. ”Rihanna and A$AP’s little boy is adorable. Not many people have met their bundle of joy yet, but they’ve sent photographs and have excitedly FaceTimed friends with him. He’s a cross between the two of them and is absolutely tiny. In some lights, he looks like A$AP and in others, Rihanna. He has got Rihanna’s eyes!” the insider told In Touch Weekly.
The source also told the publication that Rihanna is so elated with motherhood as “becoming a mom is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. She and A$AP are settling into parenthood at her gated home in Beverly Hills Los Angeles and can’t wait to travel again and introduce their little one in person to loved ones.” The insider also explained how Rihanna and A$AP love spending every moment with their little one. “They’re so in love. As far as I know, the couple hasn’t hired a nanny yet because they feel it’s important to bond with the baby as a family, especially during the first few weeks.”
Rih and A$AP officially started dating in 2020 after being friends for several years. They announced her pregnancy in a photoshoot in Harlem, New York City in early 2022 where Rihanna wore a long puffer jacket and exposed her very pregnant belly. In an interview with Vogue, she expressed how much A$AP supported her during the pregnancy. “What I love the most about us? Transparency with everything: how we’re feeling, what our goals are, what our fears and insecurities are. The vulnerability to be able to say what you feel about each other.”
She was also able to keep her pregnancy private from her own friends before she announced it to the world. “They’re around me, they know my habits. They’re like, ‘You don’t want something to drink? You’re not smoking?’” Rihanna told E! News. “And I’m eating all the things I’m not used to eating. They know I hate sweets and I’m all of a sudden asking for cookies and donuts. But finally, I just had to let it all out, and they were all shocked, of course, as the world was shocked as well.”
Rihanna expressed her desire to raise a Black woman in an interview with Essence in 2019. “I’m a Black woman. I came from a Black woman, who came from a Black woman, who came from a Black woman and I’m going to give birth to a Black woman. It’s a no-brainer. That’s who I am. It’s the core of who I am in spirit and DNA.” She added at the time, “My mother is an incredible example of how to fight through obstacles in life. I’m sure her mom taught her that and that’s how I’m going to be. We are impeccable, we’re special and the world is going to have to deal with that.”
According to an insider to HypeBeast, Rihanna will be making a documentary for Apple TV following the days up to the actual performance. “She will be recorded during rehearsals and meetings in the lead-up to the big night and give an insight into what her life is really like now that she is returning to pop as a mum,” an insider alleged. “Rihanna is a massive force to be reckoned with when it comes to music and so Apple has paid millions.”
“There is a massive appetite for everything to do with Rihanna, especially as this will be her major return to the stage for the first time in years,” the source added. “The Super Bowl is one of, if not the, biggest stages in the world, so her show was always going to be huge. Add on top of that it’s a live comeback and the pressure is immense. She is keen for the world to remember why she is one of the greatest performers of all time.”
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