Halle Bailey decided she had “no obligation” to share her pregnancy with the world.
The Little Mermaid star revealed in December that she had welcomed son Halo with rapper DDG — whose real name is Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr. — but had kept the news that she was expecting to herself. Bailey has now admitted that there was “no way in hell” that she was ever going to share her “biggest joy” on such a large scale.
“We are black women in entertainment … although we signed up for the challenges of the spotlight, in this current climate, that spotlight burns brighter, hotter and uninterrupted … the scrutiny of its magnification leaves no concealment. I’ve learned from that spotlight over the past eight years,” she said at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards on March 7.
“I’ve also, if I’m being honest, been burned by it, too, as we all have. There was no way in hell I was going to share the biggest joy of my world with anyone. [H]alo was my gift. He is the greatest blessing, and I had no obligation to expose him, me, or my family to that,” Bailey added.
The actor and singer then blamed the “state of the world” and hinted that the magnitude of social media was all behind her reasoning to keep things private.
“With the state of the world and the place it is in, with men trying to force their will on our bodies, no one on social media — and for damn sure, no one on the planet — was going to tell me what to do with my body or what to share with the world,” she said.
Bailey managed to keep everything about her newborn secret, only choosing to reveal the news to her millions of followers a few days into the new year.
“Even though we’re a few days into the new year, the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me, was bring me my son … welcome to the world my Halo [love, baby and star emojis]. The world is desperate to know you [wink, laughing face and heart emojis],” she said in her Instagram post.
