Breakfast Television anchor speaks out after deluge of pregnancy messages

Breakfast Television’s Melanie Ng is a familiar face for morning people across Canada, covering news stories from across the country and worldwide.

Recently, Ng became the story after a social media post caused viewers to wonder if she was pregnant.

It started with a trendy TikTok video posted on June 2 to Breakfast Television’s social media channels. In it, Ng and other BT anchors danced to Beyoncé’s “Telephone.”

Ng’s second-long appearance in the video prompted a tide of messages from viewers.

“Message after message, asking things like, ‘Are you pregnant?’ ‘You seem to be glowing a lot lately. Is there a secret you want to share?'” says Ng. “There was one that really stood out: Someone said, straight-up, ‘Congratulations.'”

She first took to Instagram with a gentle reminder, writing, “You should never ask someone if they’re pregnant.” It then turned into a last-minute BT chat that received over three million views on TikTok.

“I would remind people there are other things going on,” Ng said on a June 6 broadcast. “I will make the record clear that I’m not pregnant; I did eat a burrito that day, so there’s that.”

Ng says she felt compelled to address the issue publicly so that other people wouldn’t be made to feel as she was.

“It was just pure raw emotions, and it wasn’t to call out people, but it was to say before you post, before you speak, just stop and think,” she explained.

“I understand you’re good-intentioned. I’m not calling you out for that, but know what might be happening on the other side for many different reasons.”

“Every time, it felt like a dagger to the heart”

Ng has shared the struggles she and her partner had while trying to conceive. She eventually underwent in-vitro fertilization, an expensive and intrusive process.

“If you asked me this question, and I got those messages in 2014-15, I would have bawled my eyes out. I would have curled up in a ball. I wouldn’t have had the emotional capacity to address them,” she said.

In a Today’s Parent article from 2016, she detailed her painful journey and how viewers would comment on her body, inquiring if she had a secret to share. She wrote, “Every time, it felt like a dagger to the heart.”

Six years later, she says the remarks still sting.

“I’m a bit separated from it, but I’m still triggered by it. I think it’s my responsibility to speak up on behalf of Melanie from 2014 to say this is still not okay, and why are we still having this conversation?”

It took four years for Ng to get pregnant with her son. She reminds viewers that one in six couples in Canada experience infertility. Some couples have thanked her for sharing her story and speaking out.

“A lot of people came to me and said, ‘I’m also on the same fertility journey,’ people who spoke about having multiple miscarriages, people who had gained weight during the pandemic, people who just said everyone is commenting on my body,” Ng explained.

“They don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors, and this is hitting a nerve.”

But there have also been others who Ng says just don’t get it. She says she’s received snarky comments and emails just for speaking out.

“It’s not going to get through to them, and that’s fine, but I hope it gets through to others,” Ng said, adding that instead of discouraging her, those comments give her motivation “because I know it’s not getting through.”