By Brooke Steinberg and Jane Herz– Super Bowl
(MAINNEWS) – Rihanna sent social media into meltdown during her Super Bowl 2023 halftime show on Sunday night, with pundits predicting she was pregnant with her second child.
Eagle-eyed viewers proclaimed that the 34- year-old was sporting a baby bump and was thus expecting a sibling for her nine-month-old son.
As she started her highly-anticipated performance, the “Umbrella” hitmaker appeared to rub her burgeoning belly which kicked off the conception conversation online.
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Video producer Dave Jorgenson wrote on Twitter: “How many seconds into the halftime show did someone at your Super Bowl party politely ask if Rihanna is pregnant.”
Journalist David Mack chimed in: “Ok so everyone just googled ‘Rihanna pregnant’ right?”
The social media speculation turned out to be true, with RiRi’s reps confirming that she was pregnant shortly after her Super Bowl set.
Prior to the confirmation, thousands of other social media watchdogs also weighed in.
“Rihanna fans realizing Rihanna is pregnant again, and [they’re] never getting another album,” one user wrote, referring to the six long years fans have been waiting for new music from the singer.
“Just got pregnant whilst watching Rihanna’s halftime performance,” a third fan quipped.
Meanwhile, another armchair detective pointed out that Rihanna touched her stomach while she sang the lyrics “life” and “alive.”
Rihanna welcomed her first child with A$AP Rocky in May 2022 and credited motherhood for being part of the reason she agreed to perform the halftime show.
The couple still have yet to announce their son’s name, but Rihanna did reveal his face in a TikTok posted in December.
“When I first got the call to do it again this year, I was like, [hisses] ‘You sure?’ I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,” she admitted.
“But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all … It’s important for my son to see that.”
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Prior to her performance, Rihanna was asked if there would be any surprises, and she teased that she was “thinking about bringing someone” — which is now being speculated that the “someone” might have been referring to baby No. 2.
At the time, she added that she didn’t want to say too much because then “it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
