Beyoncé Drinking While Pregnant? Does This Mean Star Not Expecting Second Child After All?
Was Beyoncé drinking backstage in Paris Friday night, even though she is pregnant with her second child? Photos released through the Beyoncé Legion Twitter feed seem to say the answer is yes. But that depends on two factors.
Factor number one: Is Beyoncé actually pregnant? As soon as incessant rumors of her supposedly impending divorce died down, new rumors of the 33-year-old mega-star’s second pregnancy cranked into high gear.
The other half of the secretive music industry power couple, Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z, seemed to drop a hint during a Friday night concert in Paris that his wife was, indeed, carrying Baby Number Two. During the song “Beach is Better,” the rapper and mogul changed a line in the lyrics.
Rather than, “I replace it with another one,” Jay-Z rapped, “Cause she pregnant with another one.”
Fans immediately interpreted the lyric switch as Jay-Z’s way of confirming the pregnancy rumor. But then, what to make of this photo posted to Beyoncé Legion?
Beyoncé & Jay Z backstage last night. #OnTheRunTourInParis pic.twitter.com/CpvT2nKCVB
— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) September 14, 2014
Or this one?
Beyoncé & Jay Z backstage tonight. #OnTheRunTourInParis pic.twitter.com/cikhhL3RxR
— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) September 13, 2014
Do the photos of Beyoncé drinking mean that she is not pregnant after all? The photos were taken after the concert in Paris, as Jay-Z and Beyoncé concluded their summer-long On the Run tour with the only overseas dates on their schedule. In the photos, Beyoncé appears to be holding a glass of champagne.
Which raises the issue of Factor Number Two: What, exactly, is in the glass — and did Beyoncé actually drink any of it?
The photos and their captions do not specify what type of beverage is contained in the glass. Beyoncé holds a glass in a shape traditionally used for champagne, but that doesn’t mean the beverage in the glass actually is champagne. It could be a non-alcoholic juice, or almost anything substituting for an alcoholic beverage.
And even if the substance in the glass is indeed an alcoholic drink, the two photos released by Beyoncé Legion show her merely holding the glass, not raising it to her lips to drink from it.
So what does it mean if Beyoncé was drinking while pregnant?
Doctors strongly recommend abstaining from all alcohol consumption while pregnant. On the other hand, according to the medical site WebMD, some doctors believe that light drinking, such as the occasional glass of wine or champagne, will likely have no effect on a developing baby in the womb.
Often it depends on the individual woman. Women who have lower levels of the enzymes responsible for processing alcohol are more likely to cause harm to their babies even with small amounts of drinking.
Of course, not only is it uncertain whether Beyoncé was actually drinking while pregnant, it is equally difficult to know whether her body contains enough alcohol-processing enzymes to reduce the risk of a single drink.
