Rihanna Wasn’t Planning on Announcing Her Pregnancy at the Super Bowl, But “My Jumper Couldn’t Zip Up”

“It had to be what it had to be.”

Rachel Burchfield#039;s avatar
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RIhanna at the Super Bowl
(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you were surprised when Rihanna announced her pregnancy with her second child during the Super Bowl halftime show last year, you’re not alone—Rihanna herself wasn’t planning on announcing it, but she ran into a bit of a problem that forced the issue: “My jumper couldn’t zip up,” she laughed as she told Access Hollywood, adding “I did what I had to do.”

RIhanna at the Super Bowl

(Image credit: Getty Images)

During the first few minutes of the performance—while being lifted into the air on a platform at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the Kansas City Chiefs squared off against the Philadelphia Eagles—Rihanna rubbed her stomach and set the internet ablaze.

“No one knew I was pregnant,” she said. “I just told my stylist, ‘Make sure it’s stretchy.’ So the undergarment was stretchy and this [jacket] was baggy, but you know, the zip. It just stopped right there! So it had to be what it had to be.”

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RIhanna at the Super Bowl

(Image credit: Getty Images)

RIhanna at the Super Bowl

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The mogul called the entire Super Bowl halftime performance an “out-of-body experience, and I feel like I’ve heard that before, [but] I felt it for the first time at the Super Bowl.”

Six months after her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna welcomed son Riot Rose in August; he is her second child, following the birth of son RZA in May 2022. Rihanna shares the boys with partner A$AP Rocky.

RIhanna at the Super Bowl

(Image credit: Getty Images)

RIhanna at the Super Bowl

(Image credit: Getty Images)
Rachel Burchfield
Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.