#idk if you guys know what an amniocentesis is

[reinemichele]

I'll talk about it more in detail when I have my next dr appointment, but my lab results show I don't have any autoimmune issues 💀 So I'm just allergic to a fuckton of things for ???? Ambiguous Fucked Up Body Disease... I knew that would be the answer, my body just does not make sense, but it was nice to think my problem was 1 specific autoimmune disorder, for a couple weeks

[love-ya-tommo-row]

Unfortunately, it is impossible to be in Louiedom without forming an opinion on “babygate”.

My opinion is basically this- I really don’t like the way people talk about Briana. I don’t like that people say cruel things and treat her as a prop, rather than a real person. I also think she is the mother of Freddie- as my father once charmingly put it, “Women have babies and men have maybes.” It’s substantially harder to fake maternity than paternity. I don’t think the pregnancy was faked.

But really, on the subject of paternity, there are only three possibilities. A) Both Louis and Briana know there’s no way he’s the father, B) Both Louis and Briana have reason to think he might be the father, C) Briana knows he’s the father and Louis knows there’s a possibility he might be the father. But during 2015, when the weirdest press that convinced everyone it was a stunt was coming out, there was no way to objectively confirm paternity, if there was any doubt. While CVS and amniocentesis can technically be used for that purpose, they almost never are because they’re invasive procedures that carry a small risk of miscarriage, and Briana would be entirely within her rights to refuse any request she submit to such a procedure. So everything was based off her word- I strongly suspect she was the ‘instigator’ of babygate, and the weird press was 1DHQ trying to get out ahead of her.

But the thing that struck me was, regardless of paternity and regardless of which of the three scenarios above was true, Briana has a rational reason to claim Louis is the father, 1DHQ has strong business motivations to go along with her claim, and Louis would experience strong pressure on both a business and personal level to go along with stories that he seemed really uncomfortable about.

More thoughts under the cut

Freddie’s birthday means he was conceived sometime between the last week of April and the first week of May, basically. Briana had publicly available photographic proof she was clubbing with Louis and getting cuddly with him three dates within that time frame (5/5, 5/7, 5/9). With a positive pregnancy test, she had leverage to name Louis as the father and potentially sell the story. It could’ve become a drawn out he said-she said if they chose to fight it. But when would she have found out she was pregnant?

I was really curious how the “It’s not real” incident lined up with the conception date. Too early and it would be before either he or Briana could’ve known she was pregnant. But the date (6/27) is just past the 7 weeks mark for fetal age (or 9 weeks if you go by LMP)- pretty much the earliest she could’ve possibly known she was pregnant. So was he making a joke about the doll, or was he thinking about Briana, maybe suspecting she was faking a pregnancy or that it wasn’t his? It’s also interesting to me that Liam joins in with him. He was actually out clubbing with Louis and Briana and the rest of their crew on 5/7, one of the potential conception dates, and shortly after, on 5/11.

The pregnancy is publicly announced on 7/14. People have commented that announcing in the 1st trimester is pretty brazen, and almost totally unheard of in celebrity cases. But Briana isn’t actually a celebrity. She’s an unknown stylist from a normal middle class family in LA. She wants to avoid being pushed under a rug, and she wants attention to promote her career. I am a little curious if she knew the hiatus was coming- she was clubbing with both Louis and Liam and their crew, and while I think a lot of the details were still being fought over (ie, whether or not to tour MITAM) the writing was on the wall by that point in 2015. Did she know she had less than a year of 1D press to try and raise her career profile?

Regardless of the above wild speculation, I don’t know any 23 year old who’s never had a miscarriage before who thinks “I should probably be discreet about this until the 2nd trimester, just in case.” I think it’s reasonable to assume she thought “Oh fuck, I’m going to have a baby, what should I do?” And naming Louis as the father clearly makes sense. Either she knows for a fact he’s the father, in which case her motivations are obvious, she suspects he may be the father, in which case he’s the best to name because he’s clearly the guy who’d best be able to provide her and her child with financial stability, at least through the pregnancy, or she knows he’s not the father but maybe hoped they’d pay her to keep quiet.

Which then brings up the very good question- why didn’t they pay her to keep quiet? Or, alternatively, why didn’t she take the money? I think timing, and the hiatus, is key here. The whole ‘babygate’ thing was unfolding all of three months out from Zayn leaving the band, and a year after “the weed video”. They knew the hiatus was upcoming at the end, though again, who knows how many details were still being negotiated. I think getting through the last four months of tour without a major scandal was the main goal. The only thing less wholesome than a boybander having an oops-baby is a boybander involved in an ugly public paternity suit that would almost certainly devolve into allegations of substance abuse. Even if Louis wanted to fight the allegation of paternity, even if he said he’d never had sex with her before in his life, I think his management and PR team did not give a shit about him personally and would’ve had strong motivations to lean on him shut up and let them put a ‘positive spin’ on things. Rather than trying to bury the story, it seems like they tried to get out ahead of it to prevent any “leaks”. Saying he and Briana “briefly dated” is the most anodyne way possible to describe “allegedly hooked up while clubbing”, and every headline wasn’t just Louis Tomlinson is having a baby, it’s Louis Tomlinson is HAPPY to be having a baby, he’s EXCITED to be a dad, this is fine!! Absolutely no scandal here!! As for her not taking the money, again, either she knows or reasonably suspects he’s the father, in which case she held out because public acknowledgement of her child was more valuable to her, or they just didn’t try to pay her off and jumped into reaction mode, at which point she could hardly say, “Oh, wait, no, I take it back.”

And on a personal level, I think Louis’ background is salient here. I don’t know any man raised by a single mom with an estranged dad who didn’t carry a quiet fear of replaying that in their own lives. So if he had any reason to suspect he may be the father of Briana’s baby, he would’ve experienced pressure to not only go along with it for the sake of the band, but personal pressure to “step up”. Even if he knew he wasn’t the father, if he wasn’t believed, he would’ve experienced this same pressure, just based on appearances.

So then, at the birth- I don’t see what’s so weird about him stepping out to wander around a shop. He wasn’t in a relationship with Briana, why would she want him there? Why should he burden her and her family by awkwardly hanging around at a very stressful point in their lives? Why should he wait in the waiting room for however many hours? I know a man, who is indisputably the father of his child, who went across the street to Starbucks while his wife got an emergency Caesarean, which is waaaaaaay more insensitive. Sometimes people do weird or stupid stuff. If babygate was a planned PR stunt, why have Louis get bored and get photographed buying sunglasses? Why not avoid the hospital all together, or only take “happy dad” photos? There’s some interesting studies of attachment- most women are attached to their babies by the 3rd trimester, but most men don’t form an attachment until they hold the child. IDK, again, obviously there’s multiple ways to view the situation, but “Louis felt ambivalent about the whole thing and wanted to step out for a bit” isn’t...like, proof he’s a bad dad or super bizarre like a lot of people make it out to be.

So Freddie is born (I love the fact he’s named after Freddie Mercury btw, lmao). I think, by that point, Louis had been pretty thoroughly gaslit by everyone around him, regardless of whether he suspects he’s the father or knows he isn’t. He’s spent the better part of 6 months being forced to talk about being a dad, but this is also probably the lowest point in his career. He had literally just lost the job he’d dedicated himself to for 5 years, and I think that he legitimately had to have a little grieving period for 1D. So why not confirm with a paternity test at this point? Maybe he’s being pressured not to rock the boat, maybe he’d feel like a heel for publicly talking about the kid then immediately pressing for a paternity test, maybe he just doesn’t feel like making a fuss. I think he stayed in LA as much for his family’s sake as anything, because, at the risk of overspeculating, if Jay had any reason to think Louis was a father, I think she’d want him to be there for the baby. It is striking, when you look at 2016, the timing of his stay. He’s in LA for 2/3 of the first four months, and almost entirely out of town the last four months of the year. Then in 2017, he starts really working towards a solo career, publicly states he wants Freddie to have privacy, establishes legal custody, then isn’t publicly photographed with him after December 2017.

The custody issue is a whole other thing. If Briana was paid off by 1DHQ, why start shit over his right to see the child? If the stories are planted, why plant them? If the goal is to give Louis the ultimate signifier of heterosexuality, why not play happy families, and if the goal is to humiliate him, having him portrayed as the beleagued father fighting for his rights doesn’t seem that humiliating. IDK. To be fair though, on the other hand, if Briana knows or suspects Louis isn’t the father, that might explain her reluctance to allow him access, while she can’t publicly say he isn’t the father without losing his financial support. It’s also a bit odd to allegedly fight for 50-50 custody then not use that right, but it might’ve been pressure as I think his main goal was to limit the amount of social media pictures she (and her family) circulated of Freddie. You can’t legally prevent a mom from posting pics of her child, except by preventing her from taking those photos. A sort of “cut this shit out or I’ll take him for half the year” thing. Which is maybe a little shitty, but not unjustified- seeking to maximize his legal rights to protect his image is not bad or evil.

As for Freddie being in the care of his grandparents a lot of the time... Like, while a young single mom deputizing her parents to provide a lion’s share of caregiving for her child is perhaps not admirable, it’s hardly unusual. Plus, it seems like half the times we see him with his grandparents, they’re out and about or on vacation? Which seems like a reasonable time for them to be babysitting him, or spending a lot of time with him. Those kind of caregiving arrangements really are just a family matter.

I do get really bothered when I see people say “babygate” must be true, because otherwise Louis would be a bad person and they’d hate him. My own moral sense is very different, haha. To me, it’s much shadier to comply with a publicity stunt involving the life of a real, literal preschooler. Like, image contracts, I understand, but sometimes you HAVE to break a contract. Having a child with a woman you don’t love, seeing that child a few times a year, and paying your child support on time is absolutely not immoral in my mind. I would still be a Louis fan if he did, as they say ‘*** **’, but I am also a fan of him if Freddie is his child.

I think I’ve exhausted almost everything I have to say on this topic haha? Oh, wait, the kid is a leggy 3 year old. He would be a very young looking 5 year old. I work with young children every day, and in every photo I’ve seen of him he ‘appears his stated age’ as they say in the business. So yeah, that’s well and truly out of my system, I think!

In conclusion, I think ‘babygate’ was PR weirdness springing from 1DHQ being their reactionary selves in the last few months of 1D and just generally not giving a shit about Louis on a personal level, I think he’s done his best to minimize this whole thing and good for him, really, I have no bad feelings towards him regardless of which scenario is true. Either he is the father, and he’s paying his child support, or he’s not the father and he’s still paying child support. Anything beyond that does not affect my enjoyment of his music. I think Briana would have rational reasons to behave as she did regardless of her knowledge of Louis’ paternity, and wanting to use a famous connection to try and find financial security and be an Instagram influencer is hardly the worst thing in the world. I don’t like or care about her, but like, she’s not the devil. She had an unplanned pregnancy and she tried to make the best of it. I personally can’t hate her for that. Being catty and mean online is fun, I also enjoy making the occasional catty comment, but I wish people wouldn’t make catty mean comments about, again, a literal actual preschooler.