eyoncé's Stealth Road to Getting Pregnant With Twins(!): How She Kept Her Major News Under Wraps Till the Timing Was Right

Well here's some news that's fit to squeal over.

Beyoncéand Jay Zare expecting twins—as in two babies at once—and the collective joy with which the announcement was received says it all as to both how much the pop diva is revered and how much a little good news goes a long way these days.

We're going to guess that the timing of Bey's soon-to-be analyzed, imitated and parodied pregnancy reveal on Instagram was strategically timed and, as it turns out, laden with personal meaning.

Feb. 1, 2017, may seem like an otherwise innocuous day, but when you do the math—2+1+2+0+1+7=13 and 1+3=4—it makes perfect sense.

Beyoncé was understandably pretty far along, close to five months, before she cradled her bump in a now-iconic orange dress andannounced at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards that she was pregnant.

Later she would reveal that she had suffered a miscarriage before getting pregnant with daughter Blue Ivy, an experience that made her supremely cautious about sharing that sort of personal information. 

Back in May 2013, when Blue Ivy was about 1 1/2, Bey said in aninterview that aired on Good Morning America, "I would like more children...I think my daughter needs some company. I definitely love being big sister [to Solange]."

"And I am very protective," she added. "I just want to make sure that she can have a healthy, safe, normal life...in the back of my mind, she's my priority. And life is completely different now. So I'm—I feel really, really just lucky that I can still do what I love, and now have a way bigger meaning. And that's to be her mother."

Daniela Vesco/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment/AP Images

And while being Blue's mom (and soon, the mother of two brand-new babies) remains priority No. 1 in real life, since then Bey's relevance to her fans and pop culture in general has taken on near mythical proportions, thanks to her creative growth and, more recently, her increased involvement in socio-political issues. 

But with her unbelievably eventful 2016, which started off with her thrilling Super Bowl performance and then the momentous release ofLemonade, now behind her, it couldn't be a better time to take some time off. (After she puts the first half of an already busy 2017 behind her, of course, which at the moment includes headlining Coachella in April.)

Meanwhile, she appears to be at a similar stage in her pregnancy now as when she announced the first time—so cue the microscope zoom on every picture of her taken over the past five months, since it's possible she's been expecting since as early as September.

But even if she's only barely four months in, she was on her Formation World Tour until Oct. 7, when she closed it out at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Beyoncé's flawless concert looks and perpetually in motion stage presence of course did nothing to indicate that anything other than blowing the roof off the stadium was on her mind—whether it was being pregnant or getting pregnant.

Larry Busacca/PW/WireImage

But Beyoncé just going about her everyday business would have also played a key role in her ability to keep people's minds on her music (and the endless minutiae that fans are obsessed with on a daily basis regardless).

Being able to stick to her tour schedule as usual also had to rely on, in hindsight, a lucky confluence of circumstances, particularly Bey feeling well enough (not plagued by morning sickness, etc.) and having enough energy to bring it, night after night.

The Asbury Park Press gave her Oct. 7 show a rave review, singling out how she made her "wild dance numbers" and "belting out melodic power ballads" all look effortless.

And a month later, she was back on stage.

ABC/Image Group LA

The Lemonade artist made a thrilling appearance at the 2016 CMA Awards on Nov. 2 to join forces with the Dixie Chicks on "Daddy Lessons," her outfit again giving no indication of...anything.

Duane Prokop/Getty Images

Two days later, she poured her heart into a surprise performance at Jay Z's concert rally for Hillary Clintonin Cleveland.

Because she wanted to pay homage to Clinton's uniform of choice, she wore an on-point polka-dot pantsuit.

"We have to think about the future of our daughters, of our sons, and vote for someone who cares for them as much as we do," Bey told the crowd. "And that is why, I'm with her."

BlayzenPhotos/AKM-GSI

And just two days after that, in the wee hours of Nov. 6, Bey was photographed (after which she uncharacteristically Instagrammed the paparazzi pic) with Jay Z leaving the Saturday Night Live party after Solange had made her musical debut, and her hand is resting protectively on her stomach. Which, at the time could've meant anything, but now means...everything.

"Hand over the belly & the smile! How did we miss this,"ladyjsublime reasonably wondered today in the comments section.

Mom Tina Knowles helped keep the secret, too, when she shared video of a rather adorable moment among the Knowles ladies—Tina and Bey picking Solange up like a couple of kids on the playground on the SNL stage.

The most recent paparazzi sighting of Beyoncé was in late November while she and Jay were eating lunch with Blue Ivy at Soho House—with what looked like actual lemonade on the table.

All the while, of course, Beyoncé's no dummy. Whether or not she was purposely leaving little clues—as she did before serving up Lemonade—along the way, such as that one-two belly-pat-sly-smile combo, she knows that her personal life is always of the utmost fascination, and that even something as innocuous as carrying a purse or a laptop a certain way can trigger endless conspiracy theories.

So in order to take control of the situation, as Bey is wont to do with any situation, she had to make the announcement her way. And while anything's possible for a celeb (i.e. she could have a veil, a floral backdrop and just the right satin undies at her disposal within minutes at the drop of a text), it's more likely she's been planning the reveal to be just so for some time.

Not that everyone isn't going to still be obsessed with everything she says, what she wears, how she and Jay Z hold court like the music royalty that they are anyway. But at least there will now be room in the spotlight for other things.First of all, the Grammys are Feb. 12, and she's nominated for a whopping nine of them, including Album, Record and Song of the Year. And while stealing the VMAs' thunder in 2011 was a perfectly appropriate move, Bey has too much reverence for the Grammys as an institution to show up in a way that would ensure no one would be thinking about anything aside from her babies on the way.

Another indicator that all went according to plan: If she hadn't already been coolly set on Feb. 1 (i.e. 2-1-2-0-1-7) being the day, she might have been inclined to jump the gun after Jan. 27, when screengrab-savvy fans found a leaked video from her second Ivy Park campaign, in one frame of which she seemed to have a baby bump. Vogue officially debuted pics from the campaign today.

Long story short, what all this really amounts to is a heartfelt congratulations to Beyoncé, Jay Z and Blue Ivy as they embark on this new chapter of their lives together. By the end of 2017, the Carter family will be the phenomenal five.