Beyonce Knowles and Shawn “Jay Z” Carter announced that they are expecting twins. Beyonce posted a photo of herself on Instagram, showing her bare belly.
“We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. – The Carters,” the statement on her Instagram page reads. The image is now the most-liked in Instagram’s history, with 7,822,225 likes.
Despite her pregnancy, it looks like Beyonce will till perform at the Grammys. Her stylist, Marni Senofonte, shared Beyonce’s photo on her own Instagram page, adding “TMinus11Days !!!!!” There are only 11 days before the Grammys.
Beyonce also posted even more photos on Beyonce.com. She posted her Isntagram statement there as well, adding “I have three hearts.”
Here is what you need to know about her pregnancy and family.
1. Beyonce & Jay Z Are Already Parents to Blue Ivy Carter
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Beyonce and Jay Z have been married since April 2008 and are parents to Blue Ivy Carter. Blue Ivy was born in January 2012.
Prior to Blue Ivy’s birth, Beyonce had a miscarriage in 2010 or 2011. This wasn’t revealed publicly until the Live Is But A Dream documentary aired in 2013, notes the Independent.
She called the miscarriage “the saddest thing I’ve ever been through,” adding that, “My life is a journey. … I had to go through my miscarriage, I believe I had to go through owning my company and managing myself … ultimately your independence comes from knowing who you are and you being happy with yourself.”
In a 2013 Vanity Fair interview, Jay Z said that it’s not true that Blue Ivy likes her mother’s music more than his. She really enjoyed his Magna Carta album. He told the magazine:
If no one bought the Magna Carta [album], the fact that she loves it so much, it gives me the greatest joy. And that’s not like a cliché. I’m really serious. Just to see her—‘Daddy song, more, Daddy.’ She’s genuine, she’s honest, because she doesn’t know it makes me happy. She just wants to hear it.
2. Video For Beyonce’s Ivy Park Collection Appeared to Show Her Pregnant
Rumors that Beyonce was pregnant again started in earnest last week when the above video for her Ivy Park collection appeared to show her expecting. When she’s seen wearing a green sweatshirt, it looks like she’s expecting.
As Paper notes, the video also included SZA, Yara Shahidi, Selah Marley, Sophie Koella and sisters Chloe x Halle.
Other photos of Beyonce in the green outfit were posted on the Ivy Park Instagram page.
In an interview with Elle about Ivy Park, she said explained the genesis behind the partnership with Topshop:
I thought of Ivy Park as an idyllic place for women like us. I reached out to Topshop and met with Sir Philip Green [chief executive of its parent company, Arcadia]. I think he was originally thinking I wanted to do an endorsement deal like they’d done with other celebrities, but I wanted a joint venture. I presented him with the idea, the mission statement, the purpose, the marketing strategy—all in the first meeting. I think he was pretty blown away, and he agreed to the 50-50 partnership.
Elle also asked Beyonce how she’d like to make things different for Blue Ivy’s generation. “I’d like to help remove the pressure society puts on people to fit in a certain box,” she said.
3. There Were Rumors Last Year That Beyonce Didn’t Want a Second Child
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In October 2016, Radar Online reported that Beyonce told Jay Z back then that she was pregnant and that she had “no desire” to have a second child.
“They have discussed adoption, as well as other methods such as in-vitro fertilization, but they keep coming back to the same place,” a source told the tabloid. “Jay Z wants to have another biological child.”
Radar reports that Jay Z has been on “full-time daddy duty” since Beyonce spent much of 2016 on her Formation tour after the release of Lemonade.
The Formation tour was launched after Beyonce’s performance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. She was on the road from April to October, with 32 dates in North America and 17 in Europe. The tour’s total revenue was an estimated $256 million.
There have also been plenty of divorce rumors, but it appears that they are still happily married.
4. Beyonce Had to Prove That She Was Really Pregnant With Blue Ivy
There was speculation that Beyonce herself was never pregnant with Blue Ivy and that she used a surrogate. However, as Hollywood Life points out, Beyonce and Jay Z shared a photo of herself in the nude during their On The Run tour. It showed off her large baby bump.
This speculation is likely why she posted a photo of herself pregnant to announce her new pregnancy right away so it didn’t start up again.
Beyonce famously revealed that she was expecting while performing “Love On Top” during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. In Life Is But A Dream, Beyonce called the rumors she faked her pregnancy “the most ridiculous” she’d ever heard.
“To think that I’d be that vain … especially after losing a child. The pain and trauma from that just makes it mean so much more to get an opportunity to bring life into the world,” she said in the film.
In a Vanity Fair interview, Jay Z was also stunned by the rumor that Beyonce wasn’t really pregnant with Blue Ivy. He told the magazine:
I don’t even know how to answer that. It’s just so stupid. You know, I felt dismissive about it, but you’ve got to feel for her. I mean, we’ve got a really charmed life, so how can we complain? But when you think about it, we’re still human beings. And this is a time like … forget Beyoncé, forget the person—a mother carrying her first child, and this is the thing they have to deal with? Certain things should be off-limits. I have thick skin, I understand; I go outside, you want to take my picture, fine. But there should be some kind of human-decency boundaries. This is a mother with a child. And even in hip-hop, all the blogs—they had a field day with it. I’m like, We come from you guys, we represent you guys. Why are you perpetuating this? Why are you adding fuel to this ridiculous rumor?
On February 2, Beyonce posted photos from her first pregnancy, proving once and for all that she really did carry Blue Ivy.
5. Beyonce Used Home Movies With Blue Ivy in the ‘All Night’ Music Video
Beyonce frequently gives fans a look at her private life on social media and in music videos, so we can expect to see more photos of Beyonce pregnant. In the above video for “All Night” from Lemonade, she showed off home videos with Blue Ivy. She also shared the adorable photo below, showing the Carter family on Halloween.
We’ve also seen photos of Blue Ivy joining Mariah Carey’s twins at Christmas.
Last year, Beyonce told Garage Magazine that the proudest moment of her life was giving birth to Blue Ivy. She also said that her mother, Tina Knowles, is her biggest hero.
“She has taught me about caring for others, working hard and working smart,” Beyonce said of her mother. “Everything I know about being a mother comes from examples she has shown. My mother has instilled confidence in my sister and me and taught us to always be grateful.”