Naomi Osaka finally gave fans a look at her growing baby bump! The pro-tennis player announced her first pregnancy with boyfriend Cordae in January. However, at the time, she only shared a photo of an ultrasound and a few paragraphs about her newest journey.
Since then, she’s shared regular and promotional content with her 2.7 million Instagram followers, including her collaborations with Victoria’s Secret and Modern Health. However, Tuesday’s (March 21) post appears to be the first time seeing her bump.
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The athlete didn’t share a wordy caption with the carousel of images and a video. Instead, she opted for an emoticon of the Japanese flag, indicating–along with the photos’ background–that she’s currently visiting her home country.
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In the photos, Naomi stood in the middle of a walkway or road between tall buildings. She wore flared blue pants, sneakers, and a blue cap. But the star of the imagery was her expanded stomach poking out from below her cropped, forest-green shirt. She looked away from the camera in one image, while in the other, she flashed a smile directly at it.
As mentioned, Osaka announced her pregnancy on January 11. At the time, she reassured fans that she’ll be returning to the tennis court in 2024 but will spend 2023 embracing the lessons to come.
“I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future, one thing I’m looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, ‘that’s my mom,” haha. 2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me…,” Naomi wrote.
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In her pregnancy announcement, Osaka also pointed out that she doesn’t think “there’s a perfectly correct path to take in life.” The athlete was likely referencing her unmarried status with Cordae. But the pair have been dating since 2019, opting to keep their romance largely out of the spotlight. Cordae confirmed their dating status in July during an Ebro In The Morning interview.
“We just kept [our relationship] hidden for a while, kept it quiet. I don’t really like to go public with my personal life, but if you just ask me [if we’re together], it’s be disrespectful to her if I said ‘nah’ at this point.”
They put their relationship on full display during a couple’s GQ cover in 2021, where Naomi described him as “a romantic dude.”
Last month, Osaka told PEOPLE that she knows the gender of their baby, but Cordae doesn’t. So, while she’s begun preparing for the child’s arrival–a date we’re not privy to–the nursery is still a work in progress. Her new motto, she said, is “kind of winging it.”
Still, the first-time mother revealed she’s looking forward to the motherhood challenges and learning the most.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of things that I don’t know, but I have a lot of really amazing people close to me that I can ask questions about. Just a new adventure.”
