Justin Bieber sparks furious backlash after pretending his wife Hailey Baldwin was pregnant

And so, another April Fool's day has come and gone, bringing with it the usual barrage of weak 'got you' jokes, the occasional faintly amusing parody news story, and a whole host of apologies for jokes that were perceived to have gone too far.

Personally, I find April Fool's day to be something of a tedious chore, but it would seem that I'm in the vast minority in that opinion, as one mere refresh of Instagram yesterday would reveal a plethora of new pranks to titilate presumed thousands of social media users.

And so, inevitably, we turn our attention once more in the direction of Justin Bieber.

Bieber has been in the headlines practically without cease since his early teenage years, and this month has been no exception, after reports emerged that he's been struggling lately. And his relationship with Hailey Baldwin has been the subject of intense scrutiny, due, presumably, to just how famous both individuals are. But this week, it's an April Fool's prank that's got the singer making headlines.

Yesterday, the Love Yourself singer took to Instagram to share what appeared to be a sonogram to his Instagram page.

Credit: 1333

Naturally, many fans quickly picked up on the the April Fool's day vibes of the picture, but Bieber appeared to shut down those naysayers with a second picture, this time featuring wife Hailey Baldwin.

And this time, people seemed a little less sure it was all a prank. @flocroes wrote, "Are you daddy" complete with a flame emoji, while @quintameb wrote "now I’m not sure anymore".

But, inevitably, it did all turn out to be a prank, as Bieber revealed in his next post.

One person commented;

"Justin Bieber April fooled about Hailey being pregnant? No thought whatsoever of the 1 in 4 women who have miscarried and the 1 in 8 who are infertile and can't have children at all? I don't see the humour in that, to be honest."

And the comments continued on Twitter, too.

While it seems unlikely that Bieber's intention was to upset anyone, it's clear that his prank was unwelcome to many of his followers and others on social media. The singer was advised to become more aware of issues surrounding pregnancy loss by The Miscarriage Association, who gave a statement to the Evening Standard;

“I don’t suppose Justin thought for a moment that it might cause upset.  Hopefully, any comments that are made will make him more aware of the sensitivities of pregnancy loss and infertility.”