Pregnant pause: Celebrity performance of pregnancy during the pandemic

Abstract

This article explores how celebrity performance of pregnancy was disrupted in the United States during COVID-19. Celebrities had to renegotiate the public performance of pregnancy within a more complicated world filled with contradictions: giving birth while deaths surged, gaining access to hospitals overrun with COVID-19 patients and enjoying time at home while others were forced to stay home. This article explores how celebrities negotiated the balance of privacy and public revelation and the unexpected consequences of these shifts in the presentation of pregnancy.