Janet Jackson 'pregnant with her first child at almost 50'
Janet Jackson is said to be pregnant with her first child.
A source shared the news to Entertainment Tonight, but the pop singer is yet to publicly confirm it.
The star – who turns 50 on May 16 – postponed her Unbreakable tour last month to start a family with husband Wissam Al Mana.
Baby joy: Janet Jackson is said to be pregnant with her first child. She turns 50 on May 16
‘We’re in the second leg of the tour and there actually has been a sudden change,’ she told her fans via a video posted to Twitter on April 6.
‘I thought it was important that you be the first to know. My husband and I are planning our family, so I’m going to have to delay the tour. Please, if you could try and understand that it’s important that I do this now.’
‘I have to rest up, doctor’s orders. But I have not forgotten about you. I will continue the tour as soon as I possibly can.’
A source told E! News that the singer is in the second trimester of pregnancy, adding the couple had been working with a fertility specialist in a bid to have a child.
Announcement: Jackson told her fans last month she had to postpone her tour to start a family with husband Wissam Al Mana
USC fertility specialist Dr. Kristin Bendikson told CBS Los Angeles that it was most likely Janet would have undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) but wouldn’t have used her own eggs.
Dr Kristin said: ‘The chance that a woman, who is 49 years old, will get pregnant is very low, probably less than one per cent. As a woman gets older, the quantity and quality of her eggs goes down. Her eggs have always been there since before she was born. So those eggs are aging just like any other cell in her body.’
The news followed two previous postponed dates.
On Christmas Eve, she announced a delay in her North American tour, saying that she needed an urgent operation, and gave no other clarification other than to deny rumors she had cancer.
She later called off a European tour and had been due to resume performances on May 14 in Las Vegas.
Jackson secretly married retailing tycoon Al Mana, 41, in 2012, but didn’t confirm they’d wed until early 2013.
Speaking out that year after rumours they were planning an ‘extravagant wedding,’ Jackson said: ‘Last year we were married in a quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony. Our wedding gifts to one another were contributions to our respective favourite children’s charities.’
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 2009, the then-single singer said: ‘I think that if I’m really supposed to have kids, it will happen, if that’s God’s plan for me.’
She added: ‘I would hope my legacy would be bringing smiles to faces. Happiness with my music. Also, to make babies. I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, “My child was conceived by listening to your music.”‘
Upsetting the schedule: Jackson postponed her Unbreakable tour after two previous postponed dates and news of an ‘urgent operation’ leading her to deny rumours of cancer
Back in 2013, it was reported the couple had been looking into adopting a child from a developing country.
A source close to the singer told UsWeekly: ‘She now pretty much knows pregnancy is not in the cards, so she’s been looking into adopting. She’s been very moved by the events in Jordan and Syria now that she’s been living overseas.’
The singer has been married three times, to James DeBarge as a teenager and to choreographer René Elizond, which ended in divorce in 2000.
Jackson last year released Unbreakable, her first album since the 2009 death of her brother, Michael Jackson aged 50.
The King of Pop had highly publicised dramas he tried to start a family, eventually having two children with Debbie Rowe – who worked at his dermatologist’s office – and a third child with an undisclosed surrogate.