Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Baldwin faced the wrath of social media after their pregnancy prank on April Fool's Day was criticised as "insensitive" by netizens. A day later, the 25-year-old pop singer issued an apology of sorts on his Instagram, particularly directed towards those who were offended by his previous posts and not exactly for his prank. "There's always gonna be people offended, there's also people who don't take jokes very well, I am a prankster and it was April Fool's. I didn't at all mean to be insensitive to people who can't have children. A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April Fool's is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction. But I will apologize anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended," read an excerpt from his post.
"Some might have laughed but some were offended... I think with pranks you sometimes have to roll that dice," Bieber added in his post, sharing the screenshot of an article headlined: "Justin Bieber slammed on social media for fake pregnancy news."
On April 1, Justin Bieber uploaded a photo of an ultrasonography print on Instagram with no caption and followed it up with a few photos of his wife holding her belly in a hospital-like setting while two others attended to her. "If you thought it was April Fool's," wrote Bieber. While netizens speculated Hailey Baldwin's probable pregnancy for an hour, Bieber exposed it to be an April Fool's Day prank in a follow-up post.
Justin Bieber was out rightly slammed for the pregnancy prank with angry netizens leaving comments such as "grow up", "insensitive" and "tasteless". Though a section of Twitter came to Justin Bieber's defence, saying the pregnancy prank is pretty common for April Fool's Day, others simply wouldn't let it slip.
Don't get me wrong, many of you know I have loved Justin Bieber for years. But him joking on Instagram that his wife is pregnant is insanely insensitive and tasteless given his platform and how many women struggle with fertility.
— marge (@margarettttt_) April 1, 2019
Grow up.
justin bieber faking hailey being pregnant is... gross & insensitive pic.twitter.com/2W3ZUhTywm
— abs (@abby_blasco) April 1, 2019
Ok so Justin Bieber hasn't grown up at all. Super insensitive.
— Alexandra G (@alexaroz) April 1, 2019
So insensitive of Justin Bieber to use pregnancy as an April fools prank pic.twitter.com/bcndva6NQS
— Millie Dowsing (@millie_dowsing) April 1, 2019
Justin Bieber and Hayley Bieber are OFFICIALLY cancelled pregnancy is not an April fools joke! There are so many women suffering from miscarriage or who are unable to have children!!! This is so insensitive and frankly appalling
— justmyopinion (@_megancleary) April 1, 2019
