Tika Sumpter, 36, is expecting her first child in early October. In fact, the actress shocked both friends and fans when she debuted a growing baby bump at a Southside With You film junket, just last month. But, according to Sumpter, there was good reason for keeping her pregnancy a secret until her third trimester (7-months, to be exact).
“She’s my first child, and I wanted to experience every moment of this pregnancy for myself and enjoy it without everybody else being in it with me,” Sumpter, who currently stars in OWN’s “The Haves and Have Nots,” recently told Fit Pregnancy and Baby.
“I didn’t want to hear, ‘Who’s the dad?'” said Sumpter. “Social media can be harsh, and I’m a mama bear, protective of my family. So that’s why I waited to tell people, including some of my friends. My friends weren’t mad at me. They said, ‘You did it the way you wanted to do it. You’re an inspiration.'” Can you blame her?
Meanwhile, Sumpter confessed that while she’s excited to meet her baby girl, the pregnancy wasn’t planned. “I found out around Valentine’s Day, when my boyfriend took me on a surprise trip to San Diego,” she said. “I never want McDonald’s, but I was like, ‘I need a Big Mac, fries and a Coke now. Afterward, I immediately fell asleep. When I woke up, my boyfriend was like, ‘Haha! Are you pregnant?’ I said, ‘Maybe. Go get a test!’
“He brought back a generic-brand test, and right away it said positive,” she continued. “I could not comprehend it. So I said, ‘Go get a name-brand test!’ He did, and that one said yes too. I still have the stick. I had to show it to my mom, because she didn’t even believe me when I told her.”
As for whether her daughter’s arrival will be accompanied by wedding bells, Sumpter said, “Our relationship is not dependent on a ring. I love him to death, and he loves me to death, and that’s all that matters to me.”
In the meantime, Sumpter is contemplating her “dream birth,” telling the online magazine, “I’d maybe have some contractions and then my baby would come out with Bach playing in the background, my boyfriend holding my hand and my doula rubbing my back. In reality, I realize it may turn out differently.”
