Tracee Ellis Ross has gone into detail about social media users using clickbait tactics to falsely claim that she was pregnant.
The former Black-ish star appeared on a recent episode of podcast What Now? With Trevor Noah, where she reflected on the viral rumor, which was posted in June. Ross would later shut down the speculation on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, denying that she knows how to get “preggers.”
Around the 29-minute mark of the video below, the actress joked, “Was it a slow news day?” when she was alleged to have been pregnant.
“My favorite thing was, whoever was holding the pregnancy test, everyone underneath [the post] was like, ‘Those aren't Tracy's fingers. Those are her nails. That’s not her.’”
“That shit was nuts,” she continued. “I thought that was crazy. I was like, ‘What are you guys talking about?’”
“If there had been a picture of me with like a bloated tummy, I would have been like, ‘Okay,’” Ross said.
Noah theorized that aggregated content, like speculation of Ross being pregnant, allowed social media users to get paid regardless of the information being misleading.
On The Tonight Show in June, Ross mistakenly thought that congratulatory texts received around the time of the post were about her starring in Broadway play Every Brilliant Thing.
"Well, apparently, it's swirling around, and it seems that people think I'm pregnant. Which is hilarious. I am not pregnant,” Ross confirmed.
