Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is due to give birth in late April, early May. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is due to give birth in late April, early May. Photo / Getty Images
The Duchess is the latest victim of the #moonbump conspiracy theorists who believe that certain celebrities are faking their pregnancies.
The #moonbump hashtag is not a nice place.
Of all the dark, swampy corners of the internet, it's this one that might be the most upsetting. On the surface of it, the hashtag doesn't give much away. But when you click into it on Twitter, the related searches are telling: #MeghanMarkle, #Megxit and #DuchessofDeception.
That's because #moonbump has been requisitioned by the anti-Meghan Markle troll accounts to disseminate the bizarre theory that she is faking her pregnancy.
They share zoomed-in images of Meghan's baby bump, which they believe are evidence that she is wearing a prosthesis.
They showcase slowed-down footage of Meghan walking with her "lopsided" and "wobbling" belly, further "proof" that she's faking the whole thing.
Some 1.5 million people have seen the hashtag #moonbump in their feed. A total of 16 per cent of all mentions of Meghan's pregnancy are ones questioning its veracity. Photo / Getty Images
"There is actual video of the #moonbump folding in when #MeghanMarkle sits down," one tweet reads. "It is hilarious".
"One series of photos (purple and fuchsia outfit) showed it slipping down to knee level and its bottom edge showed through the fabric of her dress, she trying to hold it up, her facial expressions said it all," another reads.
According to research by Brandwatch, some 1.5 million people have seen the hashtag #moonbump in their feed. A total of 16 per cent of all mentions of Meghan's pregnancy are ones questioning its veracity.
Meghan isn't the only celebrity to fall foul of the #moonbump conspiracy theorists. Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Amal Clooney, Katie Holmes and Benedidict Cumberbatch's wife Sophie Hunter have all been victims of the #moonbump truthers.
Meghan beams shortly after the announcement she is expecting. Photo / Getty Images
But the largest conspiracy network floats around Beyonce, whose 2011 pregnancy with Blue Ivy was dogged with rumours that she had made the whole thing up and that her and husband Jay-Z had used a surrogate to conceive.
Some even suggested that the baby wasn't Beyonce's at all, but an illegitimate child of Beyonce's father, Matthew Knowles, and taken in by the superstar couple for reasons unknown.
There were plenty of details for the rumour mill to latch onto. At first, Beyonce gave conflicting due dates and refrained from sharing images of her baby bump on social media or in the press.
Not much was known about her pregnancy and then she sat down for an interview with Sunday Night. We mean that literally: Beyonce sat down in a chair to speak to the Australian current affairs show and her baby bump appeared to deflate, sag and wilt away before television audiences' very eyes.
It was like manna from heaven for conspiracy theorists, who claimed that a "real" baby bump could never look or behave in that way.
"Just take a look at the video," American talk show host Wendy Williams said at the time. "She's either giving birth to a frisbee, or Stewie from Family Guy. What is that, B?"
Such was the tenacity and volume of commentary around Beyonce's #moonbump that Bey herself, not usually given to media statements, was forced to reply.
"It wasn't hurtful, it was just crazy," she said. And the sagging baby bump from the Sunday Night interview was "a fabric that folded. Does fabric not fold? Oh my gosh, so stupid."
In 2017, when Beyonce was pregnant with her twins Rumi and Sir, she avoided all this by announcing her pregnancy in an Instagram photo shoot of her swollen belly, surrounded by flowers, head shrouded in a veil.
Unlike her 2011 pregnancy, Beyonce wasn't going to entertain the #moonbump conspiracy theorists the second time round.
Where does the fake pregnancy rumour mill come from?
In part, it's a desire to expose what the theorists believe is misleading Hollywood smoke and mirrors and to out those celebrities who might be staging a pregnancy and using a secret surrogate on the sly in order to preserve their figures.
But on the whole, the theory has darker beginnings. Some theorists posting about fake pregnancies seem to believe that the women doing so are trying to trap their partners into marriages and relationships, as if we are back in the Tudor times and a woman's only power in society is their ability to serve as baby-making machines.
In Meghan's case, the theory is simple.
They believe that she is wearing a prosthetic belly, and not a very good one at that.
They point to the fact that no one in the royal family has commented on the pregnancy (not true) and that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been tight-lipped about it, too (also not true).
They also argue that Meghan is using plastic surgery including fillers to alter her face in order to appear pregnant.
If you're feeling exhausted just reading this article, you're not alone.
And in the lead up to Meghan's delivery date the trolling has only increased in volume, leaping from the #moonbump hashtag on social media and into the comment section on news articles.
If it's any consolation, Kate Middleton fell foul of the #moonbump conspiracy theorists, too. After the birth of Princess Charlotte, the Duchess of Cambridge appeared on the steps of St Mary's Hospital with her husband and the new baby, as is the tradition for royal births.
Clad in a sunflower yellow dress, hair softly blown out, Kate looked as if she had stepped directly off the runway and into the photograph.
No new mother could look that good, was the line of thinking. A Russian newspaper called Komsomolskaya Pravda voiced the theory in full, claiming that Kate did not look like she had just given birth and that she must have used a surrogate and worn a fake belly in public.
"It is just not real to walk yourself several hours after birth and wave to the public," one source claimed.
Meghan is due to give birth soon, very soon, if certain reports are to be believed. Whether or not she will do the hospital steps photo opportunity, as Kate and Princess Diana both did before her, remains to be seen.
Regardless, we're taking comfort in the fact that at least once Meghan and Harry's baby is born the #moonbump chatter will end.
