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Naomi Osaka has denied rumours that she is pregnant as she spoke about her experience giving birth.
The 26-year-old tennis star took to TikTok on August 18 to address the pregnancy speculation, responding to a fan who asked if she was “pregnant again” in the comments of her previous video. In her TikTok video, Osaka was quick to clarify that these rumors are not true.
“I just want to say that I'm not pregnant,” she said in her TikTok video.
The Grand Slam champion also noted that she does not plan to have many more children in the future. “If it were [pregnant]I wouldn’t want to have many more because giving birth was traumatic, but thank you for your blessings.”
In the caption, he simply added: “Thanks for your best wishes, right?”
Last year, Osaka gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Shai, with rapper Cordae. Although she described the birth as traumatic on TikTok, she had previously confessed that it was still a meaningful experience for her.
During an interview withGlamor In January, she admitted that she felt “very strong” after welcoming her son. She also said the experience encouraged her to worry less about what others think.
“People talk about childbirth, but once you experience it, everything changes. I feel like I can do anything and nothing will bother me, and my pain tolerance has improved a lot since then,” she explained. “I no longer care about other people’s opinions.”
She also previously spoke about the challenges she faced during her pregnancy, specifically as her baby's due date quickly approached.
“I don't think people know how difficult pregnancy is; no one talks about it that much,” she explained to Fashionable in December. “When you start out, you think, ‘Oh, it’s a beautiful journey. ’ But it’s a bit tough.”
She then recalled her experience going into labor and how at one point her doctors told her she had to push her baby out quickly.
“I remember at that moment feeling, ‘This is the worst pain of my life. And I know that if I get through this, everything else will be easier,’” she said, before recalling the “huge adjustment period” she had after giving birth to her son. “It was a life-changing experience in one day. From the moment you come home from the hospital, everything is different.”
In January, Osaka returned to competition on the WTA Tour after a 15-month hiatus. Last week, she competed in the second round of qualifying for the Cincinnati Open, which she lost to Ashlyn Krueger.
Following her loss, Osaka took to Instagram to address some of the physical challenges she has faced throughout her tennis career.
“My biggest problem right now isn’t the losses, my biggest problem is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body,” she wrote in her post, shared on August 13. “It’s a weird feeling, missing balls I shouldn’t be missing, hitting balls softer than I remember I used to. I try to tell myself, ‘It’s okay, you’re doing great. Just get through this and keep pushing,’ mentally it’s really exhausting. Internally, I hear myself screaming, ‘What the hell is going on?!?!’”
She also acknowledged that she may still be adjusting to being back on the tennis court after giving birth.
“I’ve played a few matches this year where I felt like myself and I know this moment is probably just a little phase of all the new transitions – clay, grass, clay, hard court – however, the only feeling I could compare what I’m feeling now to is postpartum,” she continued. “That scares me because I’ve been playing tennis since I was three years old, the racket should feel like an extension of my hand.”
While he said he didn’t understand why everything in his game felt “almost brand new” again, he still loves the process of “pushing yourself every day and eventually having the opportunity to get to where you want to be.”
Osaka continued: “I want to teach my daughter that she can achieve many things with hard work and perseverance. I want her to aim for the stars and never think that her dreams are too big.”
