Bianca Belair’s surprise return at WrestleMania 42 turned into one of the most memorable moments of the weekend, as “The EST of WWE” revealed that she and Montez Ford are expecting their first child together.
Belair had been away from active competition since suffering a finger injury at WrestleMania 41, although she did make a special appearance as the guest referee at WWE Evolution. Her official return to WWE television came during a segment alongside host John Cena, where the pregnancy announcement was made public.
As it turns out, the idea of revealing the news at WrestleMania nearly didn’t happen.
Speaking on her YouTube video blog (see below), Belair explained that she originally intended to announce the pregnancy on her birthday instead after waiting to hear back from WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
“I was dead set on announcing it on my birthday. I texted him, he didn’t text back, so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll announce it on my birthday.’ He just texted back. He said yes. Now, I can’t go back on it,” she said.
Montez Ford also shared details on how the couple had already mapped out an entirely different plan before WrestleMania entered the picture.
“We planned to go to Miami from April 8 to April 12 and we were going to announce it on her birthday (April 9),” Ford said. “Once we got to WrestleMania, everybody already knows, so it’s cool. Now that this is happening, it completely changes everything. Now, we have to keep hiding her for another four weeks.”
The former WWE Women’s Champion went on to explain that Triple H was immediately supportive after she informed him about the pregnancy, but at first she wasn’t even sure she wanted to announce it publicly.
“Originally, I texted Hunter, and I told him I was pregnant. He was super excited and was like, ‘How are you gonna announce it? What about WrestleMania?’ I was like, ‘Well, like me talk to [Montez] about it. That would be cool. At least I could still be part of WrestleMania. Let me think about it.’”
Belair admitted she was enjoying the private moment with family and close friends and initially leaned toward avoiding a public reveal altogether.
“I was enjoying this bubble and was in a space where I didn’t want to announce it. I honestly just wanted to tell my family and friends and hard launch a baby. ‘This is mine. I don’t want to announce it.’ I said, ‘Let me think about it.’”
Eventually, the idea evolved into making the announcement on the grandest stage possible.
“Finally, we were talking and I said, ‘Let’s do WrestleMania. What about me coming out first thing, with my bump, and opening WrestleMania.’ It’s Mania season, so I didn’t get a text back for a while. They are busy, of course. I thought, ‘Maybe it’s a no. F*** it, I’ll just announce it on my birthday.’”
That plan changed once Triple H finally responded.
“We got dead set on that. ‘Let’s announce it on my birthday, and I go to Mania, I can go around and party in Vegas.’ Then, Hunter texted me back, ‘Sorry for the delay. Yes and yes.’”
