When actress Natasha Thahane decided to take to Instagram on Tuesday to debut her baby bump over a marsala-coloured setting, she might have been expecting a different response.
It’s safe to assume she’d have expected there’d be unanimous outpouring of happiness and good wishes.
Boy was she wrong.
Despite her celebrity friends showering her with congratulatory messages, the trolling on social media was immense and overshadowed all the well wishes.
Twitter users in particular have been relentless in their less-than-flattering comments about her last known boyfriend, Orlando Pirates footballer Thembinkosi Lorch, who fans assumed was the baby’s father.
For the most part, the trolling had been light and humorous, with Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa’s Lorch drawing some of the more humorous comments.
Many have made their disapproval loud and clear, with memes and jokes ridiculing Lorch for not being good enough for the Blood & Water star and seemingly disrupting a career that was on the rise.
SA’s content clown and social commentator, Slik Talk didn’t take long to put out a video chiming-in
In a YouTube post titled Natasha Thahane Is Stuck With Lorch, Slik Talk said: “Natasha Thahane, this is the worst mistake of your life. You don’t bank on a guy like Lorch. Lorch is a complete liability – he will disappoint you every time.”
Silk Talk seems to echo what the general public had been saying. While Thahane’s career has been booming, Lorch’s has been on a downward trajectory as he’s struggled for goals.
“Lorch finally scored,” one fan commented.
Thahane is not the first celebrity to find herself in this tangle. It’s almost become run-of-the-mill for successful, high-profile women to find themselves pregnant, with the fathers being problematic or whom the public don’t approve of.
Earlier in the year, Tristan Thompson, who has drawn widespread public contempt over the years for being a serial cheater, put long-time on-again off-again girlfriend and mother to his daughter Khloé Kardashian in the firing line once more after a paternity test revealed he had impregnated another woman while he was dating the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.
In a social media post addressed to her, he apologised for repeatedly causing her public “heartache and humiliation”. Thompson's NBA career hasn’t lived up to expectations since he first joined the league after an impressive stint as a college basketball player a decade ago, and many see him as a step down for Kardashian whose career as a reality TV star and media personality has been on the up and up over the years. Like Lorch, he’s a player on the decline.
When billionaire singer and entrepreneur Rihanna debuted her own baby bump alongside rapper boyfriend A$AP Rocky in late January it felt like the whole world was at a standstill.
The moment seemed to symbolise that Rihanna, arguably the world’s most eligible bachelorette whose entire career in the spotlight seemed almost singularly focused on career and success, was losing a step.
Within minutes, Rocky became the receptacle for all the disappointment and disbelief that she was officially “out of the game”. Twitter soon alighted with jokes about how Rocky wasn’t on her level as men from all over the world expressed their collective heartbreak.
Similar to Thompson and Lorch, rapper A$AP Rocky is far from a nobody, but the perception is that he’s just not on Rihanna’s level. Maybe it'd have happened to whomever Rihanna had fallen pregnant by – with her seemingly untimely pregnancy, the need for a scapegoat for blemishing the iconic billionaire mogul was profound.
Closer to home, rapper-turned-amapiano artist Reason found himself in a similar pickle over the past few years when his career started to fizzle while his long-time girlfriend and the mother of his children Loot Love’s continued on the up and up.
Loot was perceived to be dating a loser and Reason found himself constantly fielding questions and criticism about his suitability for such a successful woman.
In a freestyle shortly after the breakup was confirmed, Reason addressed the naysayers: “Talking about, ’his ass is really broke and that’s really why she hit the road. Since she let him go, maybe he could really blow.’ Meanwhile, I’m getting Samro cheques and plaques just for being a f***ing ghost.”
The reaction to Thahane’s pregnancy and the derision drawn by Reason, Thompson and Rocky confirms what had already started to become obvious: If you’re a loser, keep your hands away from the precious and beloved celebrity queens, or else they’ll come for you on these Twitter streets, fellas.
This article first appeared in Saturday Insider, March 12, 2022