Justin Bieber is "Sorry" for April Fool's pregnancy joke that invited backlash
On April 1, Justin Bieber displayed to his fans his exceptionally advanced pranking skills by teasing a pregnancy announcement regarding his wife Hailey Bieber, which he later debunked himself. After he came clean to his fans and followers, and everybody seemed to have a hearty laugh over it, Justin had to face the wrath of those who didn't find it funny. In fact, a lot of people accused him for being insensitive with the prank, and now, a day later, he has finally apologized for it.
"There’s always gonna be people offended," stated the 24-year-old pop star as the caption for his apology, which was posted alongside a screenshot of another media outlet's story on the backlash he was receiving after the prank. "There's also people who don’t take jokes very well," he added, before jumping right into defending his prank, "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. A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April fools is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction. But I will apologize anyway."
The reason Justin's post received such intense backlash was that the first step of his prank was the photo of an ultrasound scan, which he posted on his Instagram without a caption, hinting his wife, Hailey, was expecting. The reason this was considered to be a prank by many, right away, is because Hailey had commented under the photo writing "Very funny." The next phase of Bieber's prank was a photo of Hailey in what looks like a hospital room, with her bare stomach showing under the robes, which he captioned "If U thought it was April fools."
This time Hailey wasn't around to confirm or deny anything, but fans started picking up on the fact that this might be a prank - something Justin confirmed just minutes later by posting another photo of an ultrasound scan, but instead of a baby, it was a puppy in the middle of the photo. He captioned it "Wait omg is that a,,, APRIL FOOLS" and his ardent fans exploded into cheers and laughter.
Yet there were some who found this completely unamusing, owing to the fact that those undergoing traumatic experiences with fertility issues wouldn't find fake pregnancy announcements something to pass off as an April Fool's joke. But as the backlash kept coming, it looked like some of them resonated with Justin's moral compass, somewhat, and he ended up releasing the heartfelt apology post.
"I didn’t at all mean to be insensitive to people who can’t have children," Justin added, explaining himself in the same post's caption. "A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April fools is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction. But I will apologize anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended. I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank.."
"It’s like when I shoved cake in my little sisters face for her birthday expecting her to laugh but she cried. You sometimes just don’t know what will hurt someone’s feelings," he explained before quickly adding, "not to compare pregnancy with cake in the face but it’s just to paint the picture of not knowing what will offend. Some might have laughed but some were offended .. I think With pranks [yo]u sometimes have to roll that dice. #prankster #dennisthemenace #sorry#truly". His fans however are coming to his defense in flocks.