Even if it seems harmless or well-meaning, speculating about whether or not someone is pregnant is invasive and can be extremely painful, depending on the person’s past experiences or current circumstances. The same holds true even if you don’t know the person or you’re hiding behind the veil of anonymity on social media, as Kylie Kelce is pointing out.
Kelce recently opened up on TikTok about “a number of articles” that have been written speculating that she is pregnant, and she’s issuing a stern reminder to fans and followers: “Let’s do better.”
“I have kept my mouth shut on this for quite some time now, and my lack of filter is kicking in,” she began. “We’re just going to nip this in the bud. I have had a number of articles written about me since the middle of last football season stating that I am pregnant. I’m not. I haven’t been pregnant since I gave birth to Bennie, and she is almost a year and a half old. “I cannot stand people writing such insensitive articles about such a sensitive topic. Really lights my fire.”
The mom of three shares three daughters—Bennett, 15 months, Elliotte, 3, and Wyatt, 4—with her husband, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
“I had a miscarriage before Wyatt,” she explained. “I went in for my 13-week ultrasound, there was no heartbeat, and I had to have a D&E [dilation and evacuation]. So, I do not take getting pregnant or trying to get pregnant lightly.”
“And I think that we need to just be in agreement that this is not a topic that anyone needs to be first on reporting,” she concluded. “Let the parents say it when they are good and ready.”
In her caption, she opened up about how it feels for strangers to ask about the status of her uterus in person, which is just as intrusive as comments or articles written online. “I have been congratulated in person multiple times,” she wrote. “I have been questioned by strangers. Most aggressively, I was DM’d by a random woman asking ‘did you have a miscarriage?’ because one of the news outlets that said I was pregnant doubled back and claimed I hadn’t announced it because I had had a miscarriage. Let’s do better.”
No person, no matter how famous or how many children they have or don’t have, should have to experience people speculating about their body and/or fertility for any reason—full stop. Pregnancy and birth aside, bodies change and grow all the time for a wide variety of different reasons. But those who have experienced fertility struggles or pregnancy loss know firsthand how devastating it can feel when someone is speculating about something so personal. It’s a stark reminder even seemingly innocuous comments can be deeply upsetting. And yes, we can and should do better.
