Life

Carrie Underwood Isn't Quite Ready To Tell The World Her Baby's Gender

by Alana Romain

2019 is shaping up to be quite the year for Carrie Underwood — not only will she be embarking on a tour for her recently-released album, Cry Pretty, she and husband Mike Fisher will also be welcoming their second child together. Underwood's pregnancy announcement was quite the happy surprise, especially since the 35-year-old said earlier this year that she thought she'd "missed [her] chance" to have a big family. But as excited as she may be, the singer is remaining tight-lipped about one specific detail: in an interview airing Wednesday, Ellen tried to get Carrie Underwood to reveal her baby's sex, and while the singer did confirm that she knows what she's having, she wasn't at all ready to spill the beans.

Underwood made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres show Wednesday in support of her new album, but unsurprisingly, her pregnancy was a hot topic. One thing the singer did share? That being pregnant with her second child felt like "a different ball game" compared to her first, and that she also felt like she was showing much sooner. Underwood — who is definitely sporting a visible bump — quipped, "I feel like I didn’t look pregnant and then I woke up and I looked like this." But sensing that DeGeneres was hoping for more details, she joked, "I feel like you're just getting me to talk about it so I'll say 'he' or 'she'."

The host playfully prodded the singer for more information, and told Underwood that she "could probably tell [her] what it is," and that she was "good at guessing." But as much as DeGeneres (and the rest of the world) might be curious, Underwood had a pretty good reason for staying mum: she said, "we like to kind of just hold on to things for a minute. I feel like everybody just knows everything about everybody, so we just like to have a little secret for a little while."

That didn't stop DeGeneres from at least offering up her own prediction though. She told the singer, "It's a girl. It is ... and when you come back here and we talk about it after it's a little girl, I'll say, 'it was a girl.'" For her part, Underwood just shrugged and said, "OK," but DeGeneres was confident: she said, "I do think it’s a girl though. I can see it in your eyes."

Predictions aside, it sounds like Underwood's fans will simply have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure: after what shaped up to be a rough couple of years for the singer, her baby-to-be seems to be a sign that things are finally looking up. In addition to suffering a serious fall in Nov. 2017 that left her with a broken wrist and more than 40 stitches in her face, the seven-time Grammy winner revealed in a recent interview with CBS News that she'd also endured a series of heartbreaking miscarriages. Underwood said,

I'd kind of planned that 2017 was, you know, going to be the year that I work on new music, and have a baby. We got pregnant early 2017, and it didn't work out ... [We] got pregnant again in the spring, and it didn't work out. Got pregnant again, early 2018. Didn't work out. So, at that point, it was just kind of like, 'Okay, like, what's the deal? What is all of this?'

Anyone who has ever struggled with infertility knows that the emotional toll can be overwhelming, and Underwood told CBS News that she "had always been afraid to be angry," because her life as it was already full of wonderful things. She said,

I have this amazing life. Like, really, what can I complain about? I can't. I have an incredible husband, incredible friends, an incredible job, an incredible kid. Can I be mad? No.

But eventually, her totally-reasonable feelings caught up with her, and Underwood admitted she spent one night "sobbing" while her 3-year-old son, Isaiah, slept. She explained, "I was like, 'Why on Earth do I keep getting pregnant if I can't have a kid? Like, what is this? Shut the door. Like, do something. Either shut the door or let me have a kid.'"

In the end, Underwood got her wish: only a few days later, the singer learned that she was in fact, pregnant, and this time, the pregnancy was progressing without any complications. And when she finally heads out on tour in May? She'll have two children coming on the road with her.

It might remain a mystery whether Isaiah is getting a little brother or a little sister, but from the sounds of it, either way, the baby is definitely a long-anticipated new addition. And after the difficulty Underwood has endured in recent years, hopefully her pregnancy is only the beginning of many wonderful things to come.