Justin Bieber apologises for 'disgusting' April Fool's Day pregnancy prank

Justin Bieber has apologised for pretending his wife Hailey Bieber was pregnant on April Fool’s Day after the couple faced backlash for the “insensitive” joke.

On Instagram, Bieber shared a screenshot of an article about the prank, writing: “There’s always gonna be people offended, there’s also people who don’t take jokes very well, I am a prankster and it was APRIL FOOLS.

“I didn’t at all mean to be insensitive to people who can’t have children. A lot of people I know, their first go-to prank on April Fool’s is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction.

“But I will apologise anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended. I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank.”

The singer then compared the incident to a time when his little sister cried after he’d shoved cake into her face on her birthday expecting her to laugh.

“You sometimes just don’t know what will hurt someone’s feelings,” he concluded, before adding the hashtags #prankster, #sorry and #truly.

On Monday, Bieber uploaded a photo of a sonogram to Instagram, and then another photo that appeared to show Hailey at the doctor’s office, implying that she was pregnant, which he captioned: “If U thought it was April fools.”

Hours later, the “Sorry” singer ended the joke with a third photo, in which the foetus in the sonogram was replaced with a puppy.

Following his prank, the 25-year-old faced criticism for joking about pregnancy, especially from those who suffer infertility issues.

“Disgusting joke to make,” one person wrote. "So inconsiderate and stupid. Hundreds of women struggle to conceive and hundreds of women suffer the loss of a child and you think it’s funny to pretend you’re having a child?”

Another said: “People in this world who have lost/can’t have children are not laughing. Disgusting.”