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KeKe Palmer slammed for April Fools' pregnancy joke: 'This ain't it'

Keke Palmer shared a photo of her fake baby bump and said that she "officially joined the summer MOM club."
Keke Palmer is seen at "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on March 16, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Keke Palmer arrives at "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in Los Angeles, California.RB/Bauer-Griffin / GC Images
/ Source: TODAY

Danger, danger. Keke Palmer is in hot water.

The 28-year-old actor and media personality received backlash from her fans and followers when she joked about being pregnant on April Fools' Day, a joke widely characterized as being inappropriate.

Palmer's prank started when she shared a mirror selfie of herself holding her back and sticking her stomach out on social media.

Keke Palmer receives backlash on social media after she jokes about being pregnant on April Fool's Day
Keke Palmer receives backlash on social media after she jokes about being pregnant on April Fool's DayKeke Palmer / Twitter

She captioned the post, "I've officially joined the summer MOM club đŸ„°."

At first, fans, followers and media outlets were confused. But later, Palmer verified that she was joking, writing: "I don't lie.. But I do tell JOKES! Haha Happy April Fool's Day y'all, I know most of y'all wouldn't believe me."

She added, "I will be a mom one day and me and the baby both gon' be silly as hell together hahaha."

Although Palmer was trying to be funny, her fans didn't think that her posts were all that amusing. Hundreds of them called her out in the comments section for joking about carrying a child.

One person said, "Jokes about pregnancy are not funny especially with the thousands of women who miscarry/ can't create life."

Another wrote, "This ain't is sis."

A third said, "This April Fools 'joke' is so played out and insensitive."

Palmer later deleted all her posts.

TODAY reached out to a rep for Palmer but they declined to comment.

Keke Palmer performs during the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards at the Skyline Drive-In, broadcast on Sunday, August 30, 2020 in New York City.
Keke Palmer performs during the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City.Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images

Her April Fool's Day prank comes after some celebrities, such as Tori Spelling and Justin Bieber, have come under fire for doing the same thing.

In 2021, Spelling — who shares five kids with Dean McDermott —pretended to be pregnant with baby No. 6 when she shared a photo of her imaginary baby bump on Instagram.

Spelling's post was met with large criticism from her fans.

"This is nothing to joke about!” one person commented.

However, the "Beverly Hills, 90210" star said she decided to pull the prank because "every week, magazine and press outlets ask if I am pregnant."

"To set the record straight, I am not,” she wrote in another message on Instagram. “The fact is, after my fifth baby, my body didn’t bounce back like it had before. That’s when the constant questions of ‘yet another’ pregnancy first began."

"Unless you’re in the public eye, it is hard to understand what it feels like to be body-shamed so publicly," she continued. "I feel like I have to constantly defend my body when instead, I should be honoring it for the miracle of life it gave me five times.”

Spelling added that she doesn't take miscarriages lightly.

“I know that pregnancy is an extreme blessing. And I would never intentionally poke fun at losing a child or not being able to carry one. I myself have miscarried,” she explained. “My post was simply to turn the tables for once on the press."

In a personal essay for TODAY Parents, Desiree Fortin wrote about why she thinks people shouldn’t announce a fake pregnancy as an April Fools’ Day joke after she did this herself a few years ago.

“I know over the years during my infertility I became sensitive to a lot of things: baby showers, Mother’s Day and pregnancy announcements ... One in eight women struggle with infertility,” she said.

“I guarantee you probably know someone. Before you play this kind of pregnancy joke on someone maybe be mindful of the one you might know who may not find this funny. Think about how it may make them feel. Think about the woman who miscarried or the woman whose baby is in heaven now.”