BEY MACULATE CONCEPTION
Mother of God! Singer’s pregnant with twins
Put a halo on it. Pop icon Beyoncé yesterday announced that she and hubby Jay Z are expecting twins the traditional way — with a Virgin Mary-inspired Instagram photo.
What? No cherubs? Beyoncé announced Wednesday that she is pregnant with twins — breaking the news by Instagramming a bare-belly self-portrait crammed with religious imagery.
“We would like to share our love and happiness,” wrote the happy couple, Beyoncé, 35, and Jay Z, 47, already the parents of adorable daughter Blue Ivy, 5.
“We have been blessed two times over,” the photo caption continues.
“We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. The Carters.”
Actually, it’s hardly the Annunciation — despite the photo’s Botticelliworthy composition.
That birth announcement was not Instagrammed, and did not garner more than 4 million “likes” in a mere two hours.
The image set tongues wagging online as fans scoured it for religious — and conspiracy-theory — subtext.
“The important context here is that Beyoncé’s first pregnancy was met with a ton of undue suspicion,” Vox.com noted of the singer’s decision to bare her baby bump.
In 2011, during a live-broadcast TV appearance in Australia, Beyoncé’s clothed baby bump appeared to disappear as she went from standing to sitting, and rumors had raged over whether she had been wearing a prosthetic belly.
“Skeptics kept doubting the truth well past Blue Ivy’s birth,” Vox said. “The most persistent rumor being that she had hired a surrogate.”
The thinly — er, — veiled religious iconography also raised eyebrows.
But some fans just worried about their Coachella tickets.
Beyoncé is scheduled to headline both Saturday shows for the California music festival, on April 15 and 22.
Sources from the company producing the festival, AEG Live, told TMZ.com that at least some of the top executives were blindsided by Beyoncé’s pregnancy news.
If Queen Bey is four or five months pregnant in her photo, as she seems, she could be well into her third trimester come showtime.
“Please give birth live on stage at coachella i paid for this,” tweeted @jaephens.
“The laws of pregnancy don’t apply to Beyoncé,” tweeted @LetsFunkDownTwn. “Those babies will be doing the choreo with her at #Coachella.”
Celebrity congratulations were tweeted throughout the day.
“So excited about this news!!!!” tweeted Rihanna.
“Congratulations to you @Beyoncé and my big bro Jay!!!!”
Rita Ora’s congratulatory tweet included more than 20 exclamation points and celebratory emojis.
“Yay!!!!” she tweeted. “soooooo beautiful!!!!!”