The life of a celebrity comes with plenty of perks, including but certainly not limited to fame itself, fortune, and the admiration of adoring fans. But there are certain downsides, too.
Fame is a fickle creature, and the spotlight doesn’t always show celebrities at their best. Living life in the public eye means that gossip is constantly flowing about what’s going on in the lives of celebrities, from relationship status, to the health of those relationships, to the health of the celebrity themselves, and just about anything that can be photographed by paparazzi or misconstrued from a vague tweet.
One of the favorite topics to gossip about: the celebrity pregnancy rumor. Of course, sometimes they’re true (congrats, Cardi B!) and plenty of celebs have kids together, but in the case of these 18 celebrities, the rumors were just that: a rumor.
18. Kate Middleton
Kate Middleton and Prince William welcomed their third child (fifth in line for the crown) in spring 2018, but rumors of pregnancy swirled after the birth of Prince George and again following Princess Charlotte before the Duchess of Cambridge was actually pregnant for the third time. In between Prince George and Princess Charlotte there was even hearsay that Middleton was due to have twins. Last spring, she was supposedly having a girl due in the fall, which wasn’t the case — though she did get pregnant not too long afterward, giving birth to a son just days ago.
17. Khloe Kardashian
Khloe Kardashian gave birth in 2018 as well, welcoming a daughter with father Tristan Thompson, whom she allowed in the delivery room despite the cheating scandal that was revealed mere days before she went into labor (the baby’s name, True, is supposedly a family name and not a comment on Thompson’s indiscretions). Prior to her legitimate pregnancy, which was also surrounded by rumors before it was confirmed, particularly in light of the accompanying rumor’s of her younger sister Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy (which obviously turned out to be true), Kardashian was rumored to be pregnant with Thompson’s baby a couple years ago, and there was speculation about a bun in the oven years before that there with ex-boyfriend French Montana and ex-husband Lamar Odom (on two separate occassions, of course).
16. Kourtney Kardashian
Khloe Kardashian isn’t the only member of the family to deal with false pregnancy rumors. Kourtney Kardashian was also rumored to be pregnant when gossip started flying about sisters Khloe and Kylie last year and Kim’s pregnancy via surrogate had already been confirmed. Word had it that the eldest Kardashian sister, mother of three with father Scott Disick (Mason, Penelope, and Reign), was pregnant with boyfriend Younes Bendjima’s child and there was some sort of pregnancy pact she’d made with her sisters. Tbh it was probably a plot schemed up by Kris Jenner — want to get the public excited? Don’t just confirm one pregnancy and start rumors about one or two others… make four of them pregnant!
15. Kirstie Alley
Although she became famous for her role in Cheers, following the classic show’s end, Kirstie Alley has often been featured in the media because of her struggle with weight gain, and the pregnancy rumors that come with it. Alley even poked fun at the situation on her show Fat Actress. On an episode, she was rumored to be pregnant with Kid Rock’s child. In reality, Alley has struggled with infertility and had a miscarriage in 1990; since the early ‘90s she has been an adoptive mother of her two children, William and Lillie.
14. Amal Clooney
Mere months after Amal Alamuddin married George Clooney, the rumors started flying that the beautiful couple was already pregnant. In addition to the photos supposedly suggesting a pregnancy — because why else would a husband ever touch his hand on his wife’s stomach unless he was communicating with a fetus inside of her uterus? — whispers spread because Clooney had previously said that he didn’t want to get remarried, so the gossip mongers figured the only reason he’d change his mind was if someone was knocked up. Now, the Clooneys have twins, Alexander and Ella, born last summer though those babies were completely separate from all the rumors.
13. Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner is another star who has faced pregnancy rumors more than once. Following the gossip in 2014 of her having a baby bump, Garner explained on Ellen that this supposed “baby bump” was there to stay, as part of the body of a mother of three — the actress’s children with then-husband Ben Affleck: Samuel, Seraphina, and Violet. Although the couple filed for divorce in 2015, it wasn’t enough to quell future pregnancy rumors, and she was asked about the nonexistent baby number four again in 2016.
12. Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts is also a mother of three who has faced rumors of a nonexistent fourth child. The actress has Henry and twins Hazel and Phinnaeus with her husband Danny Moder. When questioned about adding another name to the family on Late Show with David Letterman, Roberts not only denied the pregnancy but also said there was no chance of it in the future. In the same interview, she also admitted her jealousy of her kids’ homework — that the children have to spend their time doing it, instead of spending time with her.
11. Beyoncé
Beyoncé has been the subject of pregnancy rumors surrounding not just an alleged pregnancy, but also an alleged faked pregnancy. While pregnant with Blue Ivy, Bey came under scrutiny for supposedly faking the pregnancy while secretly using a surrogate after a questionable videotape showed her “deflating” baby bump during an interview. After Blue Ivy’s birth, new rumors started that she was pregnant with a second child, which the singer quashed by posting an Instagram photo of her drinking wine with husband Jay-Z. The couple has since given birth to twins, Sir and Rumi.
10. Lea Michele
When Lea Michele was rumored to be pregnant thanks to an alleged baby bump photo, she wasn’t upset people assumed she was having a child with her then-Glee co-star and boyfriend, the late Cory Monteith — she was actually glad to be a blip on the radar of celebrity baby gossip. After the fake news was reported, Michele tweeted, “My first pregnancy rumor! I’ve finally made it! :)” It’s a much more positive reaction than assuming the paparazzi just thought she looked fat in whatever baggy clothes she was wearing at the time.
9. Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has no shortage of children — a mother of six, adopted Maddox and Zahara on her own (they were adopted later by her ex-husband Brad Pitt), adopted Pax with Brad, and birthed Shiloh and twins Vivienne and Knox with her former hubby — but it didn’t stop rumors that she was adding a seventh to her already large family. Thanks to the competitive nature of the rumor mill, this one, which came about while Jolie and Pitt were still married, may have started in response to rumors that Jennifer Aniston, Pitt’s first ex-wife, was pregnant. Which, of course, wasn’t true either.
8. Lady Gaga
In response to rumors she was pregnant with then-fiancé Taylor Kinney’s child, Lady Gaga spoke up while on stage with Tony Bennett at their Cheek to Cheek concert at the Hollywood Bowl in May 2015. Gaga said people were beginning to question her maternal status because she’s “getting a little older,” but she sets them straight by telling them, “I’m just almost f*cking 30.” Honestly, she missed an opportunity to include a line retaliating to baby bump rumors by saying she was “born this way,” but maybe she is saving that one to use next time around, in case there is a next time around.
7. Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis and husband Ashton Kutcher do have one of the cutest love stories in Hollywood. They starred as a young couple on a hit TV show when they were mere teens — not only is their first kiss immortalized on That ‘70s Show, it was Kunis’s very first kiss ever — and years later, they got together IRL. So it’s no surprise that their fairytale included a couple pregnancy rumors before Kunis was actually pregnant with their daughter Wyatt. Since her birth, Kunis and Kutcher have gotten married and had a son, Dimitri.
6. Rihanna
Although the rumors haven’t percolated in recent years, Rihanna was another star who used to appear in the tabloids often under speculation of a nonexistent pregnancy. The earliest rumor had some outlets gossiping that her pregnancy was one of the instigators for former boyfriend’s Chris Brown’s assault, and subsequent rumors were based on her tour performance. When Rihanna had to exit the stage during a show to throw up, it must have been due to morning sickness; when she had to cancel concert dates during her 2013 tour, it was assumed to be because of pregnancy fatigue. Of course, it wasn’t — Rihanna’s been killing it in the game for years and it doesn’t look like there’ll be a baby joining her anytime soon.
5. LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes became a stepmom to two sons when she married Eddie Cibrian in 2011, but the country singer has not given birth to children, despite the many pregnancy rumors that have persisted, in part because of the drama that already surrounded their relationship; Rimes supposedly “stole” Cibrian from his first wife, Brandi Glanville, and the two have feuded since. About her supposed baby bumps, Rimes once said in an Entertainment Tonight interview, “I’ve been pregnant four or five times this year already, according to false tabloid rumors. I take prenatal vitamins, but it’s not for any reason other than hair.” Surely she’s not the only one!
4. Taylor Swift
Being known for her active dating life (and writing songs about the endings of her many relationships), it’s no surprise that Taylor Swift is also the subject of unwarranted pregnancy rumors. When Taylor was paired with Harry Styles, then a member of powerhouse boy band One Direction, she was only 23 years old and Styles was just 18, but rumors flew that the two were not only expecting a baby but even considering rushing into marriage because of a pregnancy. More recently, Swift was also hit with a pregnancy rumor for wearing baggy clothes around the same time as Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner speculation began — while those two were true, Swift’s was not.
3. Gwen Stefani
Rumors have swirled around the relationship between Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton since it started thanks to the nature of its inception, which began when the stars were both judges on The Voice and Shelton was still married to Miranda Lambert. Along with gossip about the two of them tying the knot are rumors about Stefani being pregnant with his child, as well as talk of her undergoing IVF treatment in order to get pregnant with his child. Stefani is a mother of three to Apollo, Kingston, and Zuma with her ex Gavin Rossdale.
2. Selena Gomez
In the span of just a year, Selena Gomez was rumored not just to be pregnant but also to be getting married. And not just once. The first time, reports claimed that Gomez was pregnant with then-boyfriend The Weeknd and the two were getting ready to walk down the aisle. The second time, rumor had it that Gomez got pregnant shortly after getting back together with Justin Bieber and that the couple was planning to elope. When asked about the Bieber rumors on video by paparazzi, Gomez remained silent, which only served to convince some people at the time that it was true. Of course, it was not.
1. Jennifer Aniston
If we had a dollar for every time a tabloid or celebrity gossip site claimed Jennifer Aniston was pregnant, we’d probably have enough money to buy her every item on a make-believe baby registry. These rumors have stemmed from her relationship status to the appearance of her body to whispers of an IVF struggle. The actress does not have any children, and she’s very clear on her views that it’s not up to anyone else to worry about that. She told Glamour, “Having a child, as we know, is no one’s business except the couple or individual that’s going through it.” Does this mean the rumors will cease and desist? Unfortunately, this is unlikely.