Parenting

This Is All It Takes To Spark A Ridiculous Pregnancy Rumor

by Ashley Austrew
Getty Images

Image via Frazer Harrison/Getty

Kate Winslet sparked pregnancy rumors while talking to Cate Blanchett at the Oscars

There’s only one time when it’s okay to ask whether or not a woman is pregnant, and that’s when the baby is crowning and you know for sure the answer is yes. That rule apparently doesn’t hold for celebrities, though, because Kate Winslet had an innocent chat with some friends at the Academy Awards on Sunday, and now the internet rumor mill has decided she’s pregnant until proven otherwise.

During the Oscars, Kate Winslet was spotted in the audience talking to actresses Cate Blanchett and Brie Larson. The three were smiling and laughing, they hugged, and at one point Cate Blanchett put her hand on Winslet’s abdomen. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is apparently all it takes to start an insane pregnancy conspiracy theory.

Soon after the exchange, a media frenzy ensued. People began tweeting that Winslet was expecting her fourth child and had just shared her pregnancy news with Larson and Blanchett in a “surprise Oscars baby announcement.”

Can we please stop doing this to people?

As TMZ reports, Kate Winslet is not pregnant. Even if she was, it is none of our damn business. If Kate Winslet announced a pregnancy to Brie Larson and Cate Blanchett, she announced it to them — not us. Unless a woman decides she wants to discuss the current occupancy status of her uterus with the general public, we should all collectively back off and show a little respect for boundaries.

There are a lot of reasons one human being might touch another human being’s stomach. In fact, here’s a brief list of things Kate Winslet actually could have said to make Cate Blanchett touch her belly:

“Damn, these Spanx are ridiculously tight. I feel like a sausage stuffed in the wrong casing. Are any of my ribs broken?”
“I ate an entire large pizza in the limo on the way here. Seriously, touch my food baby. It’s kicking.”
“Is anything in your mansion as soft as the fabric of my dress?”
“I’ve been working out so hard my abs have turned into literal stone. Doctors are perplexed. Want to feel them?
“I’ve actually got a gallon of milk under my dress. I smuggled it in when I heard Chris Rock was selling Girl Scout cookies.”

Basically, Kate Winslet could have been talking about anything, and it’s ridiculous to hone in on pregnancy just because Winslet is a woman and someone happened to touch her midsection.

Pregnancy is deeply personal. You never know when a woman is struggling to get pregnant, can’t conceive, is pregnant but doesn’t want to be, is having health issues, or even just put on a little weight and isn’t feeling all that fabulous. To force someone to confirm or deny a pregnancy just to satisfy the public’s curiosity is insensitive at best, and it’s disturbing that we still feel so comfortable speculating about women’s bodies in this way. It’s none of our business if Kate Winslet — or any woman — is pregnant. Let’s keep repeating that to ourselves until it finally sinks in.