Why Beyonce May Have Used Instagram to Announce Her Pregnancy

— -- When Beyonce announced she was expecting her first child with Jay Z in 2011, she took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in a glittery purple tuxedo.

After performing her hit song that year, "Love On Top," Beyonce fluffed her hair, dropped the mic and opened her tuxedo jacket to rub her belly, laughing hysterically while the world cheered on.

Her husband saluted from the audience, and his friend Kanye West gave him a hug.

It was an announcement no one thought could be topped ... that is, until Beyonce announced she was expecting twins with an ethereal photo shoot taken by New York photographer Awol Erizku.

In some photos, Bey wore nothing but a deep pink bra and baby blue underwear. Could it be a hint that she's expecting a boy and a girl? Fans will just have to speculate until the twins' birth later this year.

And for her Beyhive, Beyonce's most die-hard fans, it came as no surprise that when the "Formation" singer announced her latest pregnancy, breaking Instagram's record for the most likes on the social network, she did so half-naked.

The last time she was with child, some questioned if she was, in fact, carrying her own baby. In baring it all, some of Beyonce's fans say she's trying to dispell any possible rumors this time around.

"That was crazy," Bey told People magazine in 2012 of the fake pregnancy rumors. "It wasn’t hurtful, it was just crazy. [I thought] 'Where did they come up with this?'"

Still, Beyonce's mother, Tina Knowles, took the fake pregnancy rumors personally, calling them "so stupid."

"I thought it was very unfair and very cruel that someone would think that someone would be that diabolical to keep up a charade like that for nine months," she said of the rumors. "As a mother, it was painful for me to hear the crazy rumors. And I even had people ask me, which was so ridiculous."

In addition to posing naked and in underwear, Beyonce also went underwater for a mermaid-like photo shoot with her bump on full display.