Cardi B reveals second pregnancy in surprise BET Awards performance, racy Instagram photo

Not since M.I.A.’s 2009 Grammys performance in a ladybug costume on her actual due date or Beyoncé’s pregnancy announcement at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards had there been such a memorable baby-bump awards show moment as there was at Sunday’s 2021 BET Awards — when Cardi B revealed, in spectacular fashion, that she and husband Offset are expecting their second child.

When the hip-hop superstar strutted onstage about three and a half minutes into Offset's performance with his group Migos of “Straightenin’”/“Type S***,” the audience at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater understandably went wild. But it was only when the cameras panned out that viewers totally understood that this was no ordinary surprise cameo. A wide shot showed that Cardi was glowing in a bedazzled, belly-baring Dolce & Gabbana onesie, looking well into at least her second trimester.

“Umm, OK, Bardi with the baby bump,” Black-ish actress Marsai Martin, who was presenting the Best Group award to Silk Sonic, quipped after Cardi’s big reveal. Later in the telecast, awards host Taraji P. Henson also referenced the potentially internet-breaking moment, saying, “Let’s go back to Cardi B and Offset giving us life — literally!”

Meanwhile, over on the actual internet, in perfect coordination with Cardi’s BET shocker, the rapper’s Instagram posted a racier announcement for her more than 97 million followers: an artsy potrait of Cardi in profile, with her nude, pregnant body slathered in what appeared to be white paint or plaster. “#2!” read the simple caption.

This is not the first time that Cardi has made a pregnancy announcement on live television: In 2018, when she was carrying daughter Kulture Kiari, she unveiled her baby bump on Saturday Night Live. That same year, just four months after Kulture’s birth, Cardi and Offset — who secretly wed in September 2017 — announced that they had separated. The couple has reunited and split again since then, and they filed for divorce last fall, but they reconciled in November 2020 and now seem to be very much together. A press release disseminated shortly after Cardi and Migos’s BET Awards performance stated that Cardi was happy to “share this wonderful news with her husband by her side.”

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• Grammys 2021 highs and lows: Semicensored 'WAP,' Silk Sonic's debut, Eddie Van Halen's snub and more

• Cardi B talks 'Cardi Tries__' series and why feminist song of the year 'WAP' was a 'cultural reset'

• Full list of BET Awards winners

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