The Super Bowl speculation is true: Rihanna is pregnant with her second child
Rihanna is pregnant with her second child, a representative for the musician confirmed to the Los Angeles Times shortly after this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Many speculated on Sunday that the singer and business mogul was expecting her second child because she briefly rubbed her belly during her Super Bowl set. The halftime show saw Rihanna perform a number of her greatest hits, including “B— Better Have My Money,” “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Diamonds.”
“Thirteen minutes or so of quick-cut pop bangers minus the type of special guest that halftime typically features, Rihanna’s show also raised immediate speculation on social media that the 34-year-old superstar — who appeared in a billowing red jacket over a form-fitting vinyl-ish bodice — is pregnant for the second time, less than a year after she gave birth to her first child with rapper ASAP Rocky,” wrote Times pop music critic Mikael Wood in a recap of her performance.
The pop superstar played her first show in years — and sparked immediate speculation online about her family — in her halftime performance at Super Bowl LVII.
The “Love On the Brain” hitmaker and the “Praise the Lord” rapper, both 34, welcomed a baby boy in May 2022. Rihanna delivered that baby reveal on a slightly smaller scale: in an adorable, 45-second TikTok video jokingly captioned, “hacked.”
In a recent TV interview with “CBS Mornings” co-host Nate Burleson previewing the Super Bowl, Rihanna hinted that she was “thinking about bringing someone” onstage with her during the halftime show.
“When Rihanna said she was thinking about bringing a guest, she was referring to her pregnancy and we didn’t even catch it,” tweeted @_romeko. “Rihanna is PREGNANT!”
Rihanna made her debut on TikTok this weekend, but her first clip was all about her infant son, whom she welcomed in May with rapper ASAP Rocky.
Of course, Twitter was freaking out about the baby news Sunday night while praising the “Anti” artist’s performance and expressing excitement for the return of “Rihanna’s pregnant street style” — which was the talk of the town during her first pregnancy.
“Rihanna gave us choreography in the sky, dancers that look like the Michelin men, hit after HIT all while pregnant!” tweeted actor-comedian Danielle Pinnock. “Go AWF sis!”
“Damn. @rihanna performed a whole half-time concert, partly balancing herself on some little platform thing flying over the stadium, AND SHE IS PREGNANT,” tweeted political strategist and TV host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas.
Rihanna is making her much-anticipated comeback at the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. Here’s what to know about her 13-minute set.
Before Sunday’s big event, Rihanna spoke with Apple Music about her journey preparing for the halftime show not long after becoming a mother.
“When I first got the call to do [the Super Bowl] again this year, I was like, ‘Psst, you sure?’ I’m three months postpartum, like, should I be making major decisions like this now? Like, I might regret this,” she told Apple Music.
“But when you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world, you could do anything. And the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. So as scary as that was because I haven’t been onstage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. And it’s important for me to do this this year. It’s important for representation, it’s important for my son to see that.”
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