Beyonce bares all in pregnancy photo shoot

[February 04, 2017]   NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop superstar Beyonce on Thursday released a slew of photos of herself posing pregnant and nude, a day after announcing she was expecting twins with her husband, rapper Jay-Z.

The photos, posted on the 35-year-old singer's website, beyonce.com, included a black-and-white nude photo, several topless shots and others in which she wears lingerie. Many were set in a floral background and showed her caressing a large baby bump.

The caption on the photos is "I have three hearts."

The pictures, including some with the couple's 5-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, were accompanied by poems about motherhood. They were released a day after her surprise pregnancy announcement broke social media records.

The "Halo" singer's announcement on Instagram got more than 8 million "likes" to become the "most-liked" Instagram ever, the social media company said. It also attracted 500,000 Tweets in just 45 minutes on Wednesday.

Beyonce offered no comments other than her initial statement saying that she and Jay-Z "have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two."

On Thursday, the photos included a poem by Somali-British poet Warsan Shire.“Venus has flooded me, second planet from the sun, I wake up on her foamy shore. she wants to take me to meet my children. I've done this before I'm still nervous,” the poem read.

Beyonce has not said when the twins are due, nor given any details about the pregnancy.

It was not clear how her pregnancy would affect plans for the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, where Beyonce has a leading nine nominations, mostly for "Lemonade," and would be expected to perform.

She also is scheduled to headline a concert at the Coachella music festival in Southern California in April.

(This version of the story corrects date of Grammy Awards to Feb. 12 instead of Feb. 10, second to last paragraph)

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bill Trott)

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