Last night, the world officially went into meltdown after Beyoncé announced she and Jay Z were expecting twins.
With the help of contemporary artist Awol Erizku, Queen Bee shared her exciting news on social media, showing the veiled mother-to-be caressing her stomach, surrounded by reams of flowers, in what has now become the most liked Instagram picture of all time.
Hours later, the rumour mill went into overdrive, with several conspiracy theories popping up.
Some of them questioning the timing of her announcement, others interpreting the Instagram post like its a James Joyce epic poem. Soon, there will be more illuminati claims and eventually someone is bound to figure that she's not really pregnant at all and that it was all a ruse.
Let's have a look at the ideas that have been floated so far.
Firstly, many astute BeyHive fans were quick to point out the Lemonade star might have given us a hint about her pregnancy via Instagram six weeks ago.
In a post to Instagram before Christmas, the 'Halo' singer shared a slideshow of photos of herself in a suede navy dress and silver antlers, which show her in back-to-back photos appearing to hold her stomach.
In the clip, the star can be seen holding up a peace sign – or a number two – before making a heart shape with her hands.
While it's plausible to believe the singer was simply sharing a message of peace and love to her fans during the festive seasons, rumours of the hidden baby announcement have now taken Twitter by storm.
Meanwhile, other Bey fans are suspicious of the pregnancy news' timing.
Next week, Beyonce will attend the 59th Annual Grammy Awards – an occasion particularly close to the singer's heart given the fact she's amassed 53 nominations and 20 wins over the years.
Following the unprecedented success of her sixth studio album Lemonade, which has been nominated for staggering nine Grammy awards this year, some fans are thinking her well-timed pregnancy announcement to be a clever PR stunt to prevent the news detracting from her award-winning album and Grammy performance.
After all, when Beyonce opened her jacket to confirm her pregnancy following her rendition of Love On Top at the VMAs in 2011, it was this gesture – rather than the song – that naturally caught the world's attention.
It is, of course, reasonable to assume that one of the most famous women in the world might have put some thought into the perfect way to time her pregnancy announcement to the world.
But some of the theories that developed during her first pregnancy reached hilarious levels of fantasy.
Let's not forget that when Ms. Knowles-Carter announced her first pregnancy with the now-five-year-old Blue Ivy Carter, many people believed it to be fake, with talk of a shifting stomach during an appearance on an Australian television show and suspicion as to the lack of pregnancy photos before the birth.
This is the same woman who openly spoke out about the heartache of suffering a miscarriage before falling pregnancy with her first child, admitting the sound of her baby's heartbeat was 'the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life', during her HBO documentary Life Is But a Dream.
While it's unknown how far along the singer is in her second pregnancy, it's fairly traditional for a woman to keep the news hush hush until she's out of the first trimester.
Perhaps it is also worth considering that Beyonce and Jay Z might have been cautious in sharing the news of their family growing at a time when civil, reproductive and women's rights are currently under threat by the Trump administration in the US.
In all fairness to Beyoncé though, she's allowed to announce her news whenever she damn pleases really.
Just look at Adele and Eva Mendes, who kept their pregnancies quiet until the actual births, making a statement about the fact that, even though celebrities are in the public eye, they and their families are not public property.
Some conspiracy theories can be quite fun, admittedly, mostly when they are completely inconceivable or bizarre, but for now, let's focus on the fact Queen Bee is about to welcome two of the coolest kids to the planet.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
