Shaughna Phillips is the latest Love Island star to announce a pregnancy, sharing the news with followers on Instagram with a cute reel. She’s the third Love Islander to make a pregnancy announcement in as many months, following 2019’s Amy Hart and Molly-Mae Hague.
But unlikeMolly-Mae, who’s welcoming a baby with her Love Island boyfriend Tommy Fury, and Amy Hart, who made her announcement alongside boyfriend Samuel Rayson on Loose Women back in August, the father of Shaughna’s baby remains a mystery. As ever with these things, eagle-eyed fans have spotted clues to his identity: a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of his first name, Billy, on the ultrasound; an old podcast where Shaughna explains that ‘this guy was like, “I don’t ever want to be in the public eye anyway,” and I was like, I like that answer.’
And inevitably, google searches around who Shaughna’s boyfriend is, who her baby daddy is, whether she’ll be a single mum, have shot up. And it’s once again raised the question, exactly why are we so obsessed with women's marital status? It’s not exactly news that women can procreate without a male partner – or without any partner, indeed. Babies are not always made within a nuclear set up, by a mummy and a daddy who love each other very much. The single mum-shaming isn't even subtle, either - on one tabloid site, an anonymous profile wrote, '"Secret boyfriend"... maybe his identity is also a secret to her. No babies should ever be born to someone not at the very least in long-term, committed and financially stable relationship. We're all paying the price, literally, for the irresponsible family planning decisions of empty-heads like this one.'
Quite apart from the fact that opinions like this are vile, classist, misogynistic and - you know - incorrect (we're sure Shaughna is 'financially stable' enough, hun), it's not even applicable in Shaughna's case.
Since leaving the Love Island villa in February 2020, where her heart was broken when love interest Callum Jones returned from Casa Amor coupled up with bombshell Molly Smith (sidenote: the couple are still together), Shaughna has never shared her romantic life with her followers. We’ve assumed she’s stayed single simple because she’s not plastered smug snogging selfies and #dinnerwiththisone all over her socials. One person even speculated if the baby’s dad was dead as she visited a grave – her dad’s, FYI, who she’s spoken candidly about losing in 2016 – in the announcement video. It’s incomprehensible, seemingly, that she could have been in and out of relationships this whole time and just… not told the world.
Speaking on the Secure the Insecure podcast back in April, she said, ‘I used to say [to my dates], “I’d like to keep my relationship private, if that’s ok with you?”, and if they said, ‘oh no, why would you keep my private?’ I’m like, red flag.’
It was the first and only time she’s given any real insight into her current relationship, adding, ‘Ever since then, we’ve been going from strength to strength, and I like that because anyone who opts in for everyone to know their every move, like myself, is weird.’
We like the idea of Billy – whoever he may be – quietly cheering on his famous girlfriend from the sidelines, supporting and championing her without claiming any of the glory for himself. And, if the fruits of their, ahem, labour are anything to go by then it’s clearly working for them. Shaughna has clearly established her boundaries around her romantic life, instead giving followers all the insight they could want into her health and fitness goals, her brand collaborations, her cute friendship with fellow Islander Demi Jones and her ongoing house renovations – and now they’re about to be taken along on her pregnancy and potentially her life as a new mum, too. If her relationship is something she wants to keep private, she’s well within her rights to do exactly that.
So now that’s all clear, there’s really only one thing left to say on the matter: congrats, hun.