Beyoncé announces she's expecting twins with Jay Z; posts picture of baby bump on Instagram

Beyoncé is pregnant, and this time, she’s expecting twins with her husband, rap mogul Jay Z. The pop superstar, who already has a five-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, with Jay Z, announced the news to her more than 92 million followers on Instagram on Wednesday. Beyoncé posted a picture of herself, cradling her baby bump. “We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over,” the 35-year-old singer wrote. “We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for all your well wishes,” she added, signing with Jay Z. In a timeline sure to trigger intrigue, Beyoncé announced the pregnancy a little more than nine months after her last album Lemonade — in which she strongly hinted that Jay Z was unfaithful.Lemonade is in the running for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on 12 February, where Beyoncé leads the nominations. Her baby bump will presumably be even more evident two months later, when she is set to headline Coachella, the two-weekend festival in southern California that is among the world’s premier live music events. Typically reserved, Beyoncé has openly spoken about the pain of a miscarriage before she gave birth to Blue Ivy, saying the heartbeat she had heard during her first pregnancy was “the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life.” News of the twins prompted an avalanche of postings on social media with several of Beyoncé’s fans — presumably critics of new US President Donald Trump — declaring the announcement the happiest development so far of 2017. “When Beyoncé is pregnant, I am pregnant,” the popular YouTube comedian Tre Melvin wrote on Twitter, calling the news a “marvellous start” to February, marked in the United States as Black History Month. Some fans imagined the prospect of a new Jackson-style musical family, with Blue Ivy as the big sister and guide to the twins. Beyoncé was a music prodigy herself when she was growing up in Houston. Then known as Beyoncé Knowles, she started her career as the teenage lead singer of Destiny’s Child. She and Jay Z are among the most commercially successful figures in music, with a combined net worth estimated at $1 billion. While enjoying a wide following, Beyoncé has increasingly felt comfortable showing her political side. She and Jay Z hit the trail for Hillary Clinton in her unsuccessful campaign against Trump last year. The first single on Lemonade, the bouncy New Orleans-inspired track Formation, was accompanied by a video that throws support behind the Black Lives Matter campaign against police brutality.