Catherine Giudici Lowe certainly never expected to find herself in the middle of a social media storm when she posted a photo of her mid-section pushed out, pretending to be pregnant as an April Fool's Day joke. Catherine, who has been married to her Bachelor sweetheart, Sean Lowe, for more than a year, posted the photo, along with the caption, “17 weeks,” as a joke, but many of her 796,000 Instagram followers failed to see the humor in Cat's gag.
“With so many women who lose babies and have fertility issues, it's not right to joke about being pregnant,” one follower wrote, before vowing to unfollow Catherine on the social media site.
“April Fools is supposed to be funny and this is not funny,” another wrote. “Really disappointed in your sense of humor.”
Catherine Lowe's fake baby bump pic caused a lot of controversy on Instagram. (Instagram)
Catherine and Sean, who have been plagued with baby rumours since they married in January 2014, later expressed remorse for causing heartache to their followers. Catherine followed up her “baby bump” photo with a pic that explained that the bump was caused by a burger, not a baby. She addressed the controversy in the photo's caption.
“About my earlier post, it was intended to be lighthearted and fun and certainly not insensitive,” Catherine wrote. “My heart goes out to all the women struggling with fertility.”
Followers continued to write nasty comments to Catherine in regard to the joke, prompting Sean to address the situation on his blog on Thursday.
“Yesterday, my sweet wife posted what we both thought would be a funny April Fools prank on Instagram,” he wrote. “Most people knew immediately that it was a joke of course and that she wasn't really pregnant.”
Sean went on to explain that Catherine thought it would be funny to joke about being pregnant because she is literally asked every day on social media if she's expecting.
Catherine and Sean are not having a baby-- yet. (WENN)
“On nearly every picture Catherine posts on Instagram, she gets flooded with comments from people who tell her she looks pregnant,” he wrote. “We understand that many of these people have no ill intent and are genuinely just hoping that we're pregnant because they want to see us start our family, and we totally get that. But at the same time, it would be really tough for any woman to hear that she looks pregnant on a daily basis when she's not.
“The ironic part is that Catherine has a huge heart for women who are struggling with fertility,” he added.
Sean and Catherine have said that they do intend to start a family. Last month, Catherine told Extra that she and Sean were going to try for a baby later this year, and hope to start a family in 2016.
