Halle Bailey has insisted she "never lied" about her pregnancy.
'The Little Mermaid' star, 23, announced on January 6 she had welcomed a baby boy named Halo with her rapper boyfriend DDG, 26, late last year following months of speculation about whether she was expecting her first child - and she has now defended her decision to keep her news private during a row with a troll on X - formerly known as Twitter.
After one of her followers claimed the actress "went out of her way to lie and gaslight [fans about her pregnancy]", Bailey replied: "I never lied or even said anything about it honey."
In November, Bailey previously covered up the fact she was pregnant by warning her fans to stop talking about how she had “pregnancy nose” – a phenomenon many believe happens to women in the last stages of expecting - and she went on to reference her comments as she called the troll out.
She added: "Making a joke about my nose was the farthest I went. I’ll never understand why you are mad I protected my own peace, wouldn’t you do the same?
"And I’m gonna share my pics now if I want to because my son is here safely, if u don’t wanna see it just keep scrolling baby lol God bless you."
The screen star went on to insist would be stepping away from X after the row, adding: "LOL my hormones have been on 10 recently so I’m gonna go back to staying off Twitter. Love you all."
Bailey previously explained why she decided not to share her happy news until after the birth - insisting she wanted to have some "private, healthy time".
Speaking in a video posted on Snapchat via the Snapchat Reply function, Bailey told her followers: "I really appreciate people ... who are kind and understanding especially of me wanting to wait to share something this sacred and beautiful. I just wanted to make sure that I had a beautiful, private, healthy time in my journey ... "
She went on to reveal she did her best to avoid social media as much as possible during her pregnancy as she didn't want to comment on all the baby rumours.
Bailey said: "I stayed off all social media, I really tried to, just to keep myself sane and okay. I know there was a lot of people who would always comment and be like: 'We know, girl, we know,' and I was like: 'It's great that you know but I'm going to just chill. That’s wonderful if you support me. If you don’t I hope you have a wonderful life'."
When one follower asked her how she's feeling now since becoming a mom, Bailey replied: "I'm feeling really really great, I'm so so happy... I'm just so happy right now."
Bailey announced the arrival of her son by sharing a photo of her holding her newborn’s hand with the caption: “Even though we’re a few days into the new year, the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me, was bring me my son ...
"Welcome to the world my halo ... The world is desperate to know you ... " DDG shared a similar picture, which he captioned: “My biggest blessing by far son ... never been so in love ... baby halo."