Justin Bieber has been chastised for joking about his wife Hailey being pregnant on April Fool’s Day.
On Monday, the 25-year-old musician shared two photographs on Instagram that hinted at Hailey’s pregnancy. It turned out to be an April Fool’s joke, but many people didn’t like it.
While some fans mistook this for a pregnancy announcement, especially given a previous story said the pair had considered having children, the model quickly debunked the rumor. “very funny…” she remarked in the comments.
Bieber took the prank a step further by posting multiple photos of Baldwin stroking her naked stomach in what seemed to be a doctor’s clinic, flanked by two gloved medical experts.
He then admitted his mistake, captioning another ultrasound photo with a puppy in the centre, “Wait omg is that a…APRIL FOOLS”
While the post attracted a slew of amusing reactions, including ones from singer Ariana Grande and Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun, it also elicited a slew of angry responses, particularly from individuals who have reproductive concerns.
Under the puppy post, user britt saddler remarked, “Not funny. As someone who has experienced many losses and 9 yrs of infertility it is hard to see April Fools pregnancy announcements. I hope you truly are expecting though because it is an amazing gift and blessing.”
“Justin Bieber lying about Hailey being pregnant is beyond disrespectful. 1 in 4 women suffer from infertility, miscarriages, still born babies. How f***ing disrespectful, April fools or not, fake pregnancy announcements are fucking disgusting. Are we still doing this in 2019? [sic]”, another person wrote on Twitter.
“LISTEN, I DONT CARE IF YOU ARE JUSTIN BIEBER OR HAILEY BALDWIN, A FAKE PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE,” a third person said.
“I hope you and your wife never have to experience what infertility or the loss of a pregnancy feels like because I guarantee this would no longer be ‘funny’ to you,” one person commented in a remark that has already been liked over 500 times.
“I hope y’all never experience infertility or infant loss,” user maribellemf remarked. “Faking a pregnancy is nothing to joke about. This is (expletive) insensitive.”
“These jokes aren’t funny,” another remarked, “…do you understand how many families have to deal with infertility and loss of pregnancy? Shame on you”.
“I’ve never been mad at @justinbieber, but today I’m disappointed in him for posting a fake pregnancy announcement,” another person remarked.
“Honestly, not a funny joke when millions of women are struggling with infertility and other issues of the sort. Sad, @justinbieber.”
Justin has subsequently apologized for the hoax on Instagram Stories, posting a screenshot of an article titled “Justin Bieber Slammed on Social Media for Fake Pregnancy News” with the caption:
“There’s always gonna be people offended, there’s also people who don’t take jokes very well, I am a prankster and it was APRIL FOOLS. I didn’t at all mean to be insensitive to people who can’t have children. A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April fools is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction. But I will apologise anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended.”
“I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank.. it’s like when I shoved cake in my little sisters face for her birthday expecting her to laugh but she cried. You sometimes just don’t know what will hurt someone’s feelings not to compare pregnancy with cake in the face but it’s just to paint the picture of not knowing what will offend. Some might have laughed but some were offended .. I think with pranks you sometimes have to roll that dice. #prankster #dennisthemenace #sorry #truly”
It comes after health experts advised that an April Fool’s joke about fertility should never be made.
“Women can be quite fragile around the issue of pregnancy and something like a joke pregnancy announcement can end up being a painful reminder of something they are struggling with. Women who are experiencing fertility issues, have had a miscarriage or have had to terminate a pregnancy may have had to keep this to themselves, will be feeling emotional. To see something like [a joke announcement] on Instagram of Facebook is really disrespectful.”