12 Celebrities Who Kept Their Pregnancies a Secret

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Given that celebrities already live a high-profile life, it makes sense that while some of them are happy to announce their pregnancies, others choose to keep the big news under wraps. Just like us regular people, sometimes they would choose to prioritize privacy, especially during such a life-changing chapter. As Kylie Jenner wrote after the 2018 birth of her first child, "My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world. I knew for myself I needed to prepare for this role of a lifetime in the most positive, stress-free and healthy way I knew how.”

As some of our favorite celebrities have proven, it is possible to keep the news a secret up until delivery. Some of the births below were speculated about but never confirmed, and others came as a complete, happy surprise to fans. Below, revisit some of the best secret (or super quiet) celebrity pregnancies and birth announcements.

Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott

Arguably the most famous case of the secret celebrity pregnancy, Kylie Jenner kept her first pregnancy with daughter Stormi Webster completely private. She was rarely photographed and though there was plenty of speculation around a potential pregnancy, Jenner and her inner circle didn’t make a peep until she dropped a video of the entire experience which offered a glimpse of her labor and delivery.

According to Jenner, she wanted to keep her pregnancy private because she’d already shared so much of her life on her family’s reality show. “I was also really young when I got pregnant. And it was just a lot for me, personally,” Jenner explained in 2021. (She was 20 when Stormi was born.) “I didn’t know how I would bring that to the public too and have, you know, everyone’s opinions. I think it was just something that I needed to go through by myself.”

Halle Bailey and DDG

The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey and her boyfriend rapper Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr., professionally known as DDG, welcomed their first child, son Halo, in early 2024. Bailey never publicly shared her pregnancy news and only after her child was born did she share later that her choice to keep the experience private came from a “place of protection” for herself and her son.

"There was no way in hell I was going to share the biggest joy of my world with anyone. Halo was my gift,” she said. “He is the greatest blessing, and I had no obligation to expose him, me, or my family to that.” Though the new parents initially kept Halo’s face private, he does make cute cameos on their social media today.

Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden

The actress and musician (of Good Charlotte) secretly welcomed not one but two children, daughter Raddix and son Cardinal, via surrogate. "We are blessed and excited to announce the birth of our son, Cardinal Madden,” the couple wrote in a joint post on Instagram. “He is awesome and we are all so happy he is here!” The parents are very protective of their children and do not share photos of their faces, as they noted in the caption. “For the kids' safety and privacy we won’t be posting any pictures - but he’s a really cute."

Mindy Kaling

When Mindy Kaling shared that she’d given birth to her third child, a daughter named Anne, in early 2024, fans were shocked. First of all, she didn’t share the news until June, and baby Anne was born in February. Secondly, she managed to avoid being photographed. "In late February I gave birth to my daughter, Anne. She’s the best birthday present I could’ve ever imagined,” Kaling wrote on Instagram.

This wasn’t Kaling’s first secret pregnancy; she welcomed son Spencer in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. "It has been wonderful," the star shared of the experience. "I don't know if I recommend everyone having a secret pregnancy during a worldwide pandemic, but I will say I learned a lot from it. Definitely like a once in a lifetime type of thing." Kaling has also never disclosed the father(s) or her children, but she does publicly refer to herself as a single mother.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend

Teigen and Legend welcomed not one but two babies in 2023; daughter Esti was born in January 2023, and son Wren followed in June via surrogate.

In an Instagram post, Teigen explained that she had always wanted four children. But because Teigen wasn’t sure she could carry another child on her own after the loss of son Jack, the couple decided to pursue surrogacy in 2021. At the same time, she and Legend began the IVF process once again, which ended up being a success.

While Teigen was pregnant with one baby, the couple found out their surrogate had become pregnant with a second baby—which meant Teigen was actually pregnant at the same time as her surrogate.  Teigen confirmed Wren’s birth on Instagram with an ode to their “loving, compassionate” surrogate.

"We want to say thank you for this incredible gift you have given us, Alexandra," she wrote. "And we are so happy to tell the world he is here, with a name forever connected to you, Wren Alexander Stephens."

Paris Hilton and Carter Reum

Paris Hilton kept the birth of her first child, son Phoenix, such a secret that even her mom Kathy didn’t know she was pregnant. Baby Phoenix met his grandma for the first time on an episode of Hilton’s reality series Paris in Love.

“My life has been so public, so out there. I didn’t want my son to come into this world with any negative energy,” Hilton explained of her decision to keep the news super, super private until Phoenix was born via surrogate. “I’m really happy I did it that way, just for Carter and I to have that journey together without the outside world chirping in.”

Kane and Katelyn Brown

The country musician and his wife kept their second pregnancy low-key and private, announcing the arrival of daughter Kodi after her birth. According to Kane, this was in part because of social media attention.

"I'm not bashing anybody, but last time, I sent a picture to my older brother, and he put it on social media before we announced it," he explained in 2022. "So everybody already knew about it, and it was kind of upsetting." He went on to say that the couple wanted to share the news “on their own terms.”

Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song

Culkin and Song kept the news of both pregnancies as private as possible; they announced the birth of their first son, Dakota, in 2021, telling Esquire that they were “overjoyed” by the arrival. (Dakota is named for Culkin’s late sister, who died in 2008). Their second son followed in 2023, though his name has not been shared. In his Hollywood Walk of Fame speech, Culkin called his family “my three favorite people.”

Riley Keough and Ben Smith-Peterson

The actress and her husband quietly welcomed their first child, daughter Tupelo, via surrogate in 2022, but news of the baby’s birth wasn’t confirmed until she was mentioned in Keough’s 2023 eulogy to her mother, the late Lisa Marie Presley. Keough shared her daughter’s name in an interview with Vanity Fair, saying that it was an homage to the birthplace of her grandfather Elvis. Her middle name, Storm, is in honor of Keough’s late brother Benjamin.

"This is the thing in my life so far that I have really wanted to, quote-unquote, get right,” Keough shared. “I don't think you ever can be a perfect parent, but I would like to be the best mom for her that I can be.”

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara

The actors, who met in 2017, welcomed their first child in 2020—director Victor Kossakovsky shared that Phoenix had a son at a film festival, but neither actor has ever spoken publicly about their child. We do know that the child is named River after Phoenix’s late brother, actor River Phoenix.

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling

The celebrity couple’s second daughter, Amada, was born in April 2016, surprising fans. While Mendes had been photographed sporadically during her pregnancy, she was often covered up to obscure her bump. The couple, who are also parents to their elder daughter Esmeralda, is extremely private about their family life and rarely share updates about their children.

Ashley Olsen and Louis Eisner

It comes as no surprise that the notoriously private Ashley Olsen was able to keep her pregnancy under wraps—and that we don't know much about the couple's child. All we do know is that she and her husband Louis Eisner welcomed their son Otto in 2023.

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