Janet Jackson has confirmed she is pregnant with her first child, at the age of 50.
The singer told People magazine after posing for a picture with her growing baby bump: “We thank God for our blessing.”
Speculation about Janet Jackson’s pregnancy surfaced in April when she postponed her Unbreakable tour, saying she wanted to focus on planning a family with her husband, Wissam al-Mana.
Janet Jackson was recently spotted in London shopping for baby essentials.
The People magazine quoted a source close to the singer as saying: “She is super excited about her pregnancy and is doing extremely well. She actually feels very good about everything.”
In a video posted on Twitter in April, Janet Jackson told her fans that she was postponing her world tour because “there’s been a sudden change”.
“I thought it was important that you be the first to know. My husband and I are planning our family,” she said.
She added: “Please if you can try and understand that its important that I do this now.”
Janet Jackson went on to say: “I have to rest up, doctor’s orders.”
The singer is far from the only famous face to give birth later in life.
In 2013, Halle Berry had her second child at 47, while John Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, gave birth to her third child at 48.
Geena Davis became a mother later in life after falling in love with an Iranian-American neurosurgeon in her 40s. Her first child, a girl, arrived when she was 46, followed two years later by twin boys.
Then there was Swiss billionaire Maria Louis-Dreyfus, who gave birth to twin girls in March 2016, at the age of 53.
However, these mothers – including Janet Jackson – are all positively young when compared to the world’s oldest new mothers.
In fact, there are at least three women in India who claimed to have carried their children to term when at least twenty years older than Janet Jackson.
Each time, the births caused a debate over the ethical issues surrounding having a baby so late in life – especially after Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, the Spanish woman who once held the title of the world’s oldest mother, died three years after having twin boys.
All three are understood to have used donated eggs in order to have their children.
