Yesterday pop singer and Canada's most annoying export Justin Bieber announced his wife Hailey Baldwin was pregnant by sharing a photo of an ultrasound on Instagram. Several fans rejoiced and congratulated the young father-to-be, while others scoffed and pointed out the date: April 1st, when you take every surprising announcement with a grain of salt.
In response to skeptical Beliebers, Justin uploaded another photo, which appeared to show Hailey getting the ultrasound in a hospital. "If U thought it was April fools," he wrote in the caption, throwing us all quite a plot twist. After all, the 25-year-old had a lightning-fast marriage; he might also rush into having children.
As everyone lost their minds, wondering what was real and what was fake, Bieber cleared everything up with another photo: a photoshopped image of a puppy in a sonogram. "Wait omg is that a,,, APRIL FOOLS," he wrote in the caption, confirming it was all a prank. (Although, as a conspiracy theorist, I am still choosing to believe Hailey is pregnant with a human-animal hybrid.)
The April Fool's joke sparked a furious backlash from people who found it offensive to pretend to be pregnant. Countless couples struggle to have children, and millions of women struggle with fertility problems. What one person considers an innocent prank about pregnancy can trigger painful memories in others.
Today Justin responded to the backlash by sharing a lengthy post on Instagram. "There’s always gonna be people offended, there’s also people who don’t take jokes very well," he wrote. "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 apologize anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended."
"I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank," he continued. "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 u sometimes have to roll that dice. #prankster #dennisthemenace #sorry #truly."