Jillian Hervey is a new mommy! The singer recently gave birth to a baby boy with her partner and LION BABE bandmate Lucas Goodman after keeping it a secret for nine months. Jillian spoke with Essence about her decision to keep the pregnancy and her relationship with Lucas under wraps.
“My personal life, like my creative life, is sacred, but coming from the upbringing I have had, I never wanted to overshare,” she said. “Lucas and I have always valued our privacy and up until this point have never spoken of our relationship. There is an endless connection in the words I write, images we create, and music we make, that invites you into our personal life. Although we are in the age of sharing everything, I am far more old-school and prefer to make sure that I have a life full of experiences that are just for me/us.”
And while privacy is important to the couple, they do acknowledge what it would mean to their fans to share the special moment in their lives. “I also think pregnancy always invites opinions, and as soon as I found out, I knew that I had a lot of thoughts of my own about what was going on, and didn’t want to add additional pressure to what I was already creating in my own mind,” she said.
“Our LION BABE world does feel like a family though, so that is why it now feels appropriate. This is a huge milestone filled with love in our lives, and we didn’t want to start another year of creating, without our fans, community, and supporters knowing that this miracle had just occurred.”
Jillian’s mom, Vanessa Williams, is also overjoyed with being a grandmother. The veteran actress gushed over her daughter and grandchild on her Instagram page.
“So proud to welcome my beautiful daughter @lionbabe into the wonderful, challenging, and most rewarding role in life …motherhood, she wrote. “I’m always here to support, advise and babysit at any moment ☀️ And of course the amazing father @astroraw who has been by Jillian’s side since the beginning with support, love, and endless creativity.”
Jillian isn’t the first celebrity to hide her pregnancy. Here are some other famous faces who kept their baby news a secret until the time was right.
Samira Wiley
The day after Mother’s Day, Orange is the New Black star Samira Wiley revealed that her wife had given birth to their first child. Sharing a cute photo of their baby on Instagram, she captioned the post, “Happy 1st Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, who four weeks ago today after laboring for almost 3 days gave birth to our first child—our gorgeous daughter, George.💜”
She added, “Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for.
George Elizabeth
4.11.2021 💜”
Viola Davis
Viola Davis’ The Help co-star Octavia Spencer actually spilled the beans about the actress becoming a mother during the 2011 ELLE Women in Hollywood. Viola and her husband Julius Tennon adopted their daughter Genesis and the actress spoke about her love for her baby girl in an Instyle interview.
“I always tell Genesis she was born from my heart, not my belly,” she said. “There are so many ways to mother rather than to carry a child in your body. So many children need parents, and so many of us want to mother. Know that you will experience motherhood to the full extent.”
Naomi Campbell
In May 2021, Naomi Campbell shocked everyone after revealing she is now a new mother via Instagram. She shared an adorable photo of the baby’s feet with a touching caption.
"A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother," she wrote. "So honoured to have this gentle soul in my life there are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you, my angel. There is no greater love."
Gabrielle Union
Gabrielle Union had a tough and long journey to motherhood. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to get pregnant naturally and with IVF treatments, she decided to go the surrogacy route. In 2018, Gabrielle and Dwyane Wade welcomed their daughter Kaavia James Union Wade and while the family seem to be happy, there was a time when the actress questioned what her bond with her daughter would be like. Writing in her memoir, You Got Anything Stronger?, she shared.
“I was so worried that maybe she’s not gonna love me as much because I didn’t birth her. Maybe she’s not gonna respect me as much because I didn’t birth her. Maybe he’s not ever going to be able to love me fully, completely, because I wasn’t able to do this and I’ll never know.”
Featured image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Lincoln Center