Sabrina Carpenter faces backlash over ‘insensitive’ April Fools’ Day pregnancy joke

‘I thought literally everyone knew this was not an okay April Fools’ Day joke?’ one fan asked

Sabrina Carpenter has been accused of being “incredibly insensitive” after she joked that she was pregnant during a concert on April Fools’ Day.

On Friday 1 April, the “Nonsense” singer performed in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she made the joke while speaking to the audience.

“Put your hands up if you live in Salt Lake,” Carpenter sang to cheers from the crowd. “How do you get alcohol on Sundays?”

“I’m pregnant,” the 23-year-old then continued. After a brief pause, during which the crowd was noticeably silent, Carpenter then sang: “Happy April Fools’ Day.”

A video of Carpenter’s April Fools’ joke was shared on TikTok by a fan named Nat, where it has since been viewed more than 797,000 times.

The video, which has also circulated on Twitter, has since sparked a debate about the “appropriateness” of Carpenter’s joke, with many claiming it is “insensitive” to make pregnancy-related jokes on the holiday.

“Ooof, that’s [a] bad PR team she has. Who told her this was a good idea? Incredibly insensitive to people who can’t get pregnant, have had miscarriages, or how about women currently pregnant but at high risk for losing the baby?” one person tweeted. “Why are people so dumb?!”

Another said: “This is so insensitive to people who can’t get pregnant.”

“I thought literally everyone knew this was not an okay April Fools’ Day joke?” someone else asked.

This is not the first time that a celebrity has faced backlash over a pregnancy-related April Fools’ Day joke, as Justin Bieber previously apologised after telling fans that wife Hailey Bieber was pregnant in 2019.

The singer later defended himself over the joke on Instagram, where he claimed that he was a “prankster” and that “there’s always gonna be people offended”.

“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 FOOLS’. I didn’t at all mean to be insensitive to people who can’t have children,” Bieber said at the time.

In the post, the singer then said that he would “apologise anyway” and “take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended”.

“I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank,” he added. The singer then compared the incident to a time when his little sister cried after he’d shoved cake into her face on her birthday expecting her to laugh. “You sometimes just don’t know what will hurt someone’s feelings,” he concluded, before adding the hashtags #prankster, #sorry and #truly.

Keke Palmer also faced similar criticism after she joked that she was pregnant with her first child on 1 April 2022. Palmer later deleted the post after her clarification that the news was an April Fools’ Day joke sparked backlash from fans.

However, in an Instagram post shared this year on 2 April, Palmer claimed she “manifested” her son Leodis, who was born in February, when she’d joked about being pregnant last year.

“And to think! Just last April Fools’ I ‘joked’ about being preggers … we manifested you little buddy!” she captioned a video of herself holding the baby.

In an article published by Parents, the outlet notes that pregnancy-related April Fools’ Day jokes are controversial for a number of reasons, including because of the number of people who struggle to get pregnant, challenges to reproductive rights, and because of those who have suffered pregnancy loss.

As of now, Carpenter has not addressed the backlash over her April Fools’ Day joke.

The Independent has contacted Carpenter for comment.