The internet was ablaze earlier this week when one of its newest darlings, Emmy-winning actress Ayo Edebiri – who is fond of joking with fans online, particularly via Letterboxd – seemingly revealed a big surprise about her personal life in a newly-released interview.
The Bottoms actress is the latest cover star for Citizen Magazine, and an online version of Edebiri’s interview with the publication seemingly revealed that she has a two-year-old daughter. For fans of the 29-year-old, this admission came as an incredible shock.
In a conversation with interviewer Yaa Gyasi, an exchange about family, adolescence, and the elderly stood out immediately for many followers of the actress and comedian.
“My mom was a CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant] so she got me my first job as a waitress in a retirement home. So I spent most of my days with elderly people who are like coming down for their dinners at five o’clock. I got so close to some of them,” the magazine’s online version of the interview read.
“And now that I have a kid — I haven’t mentioned that yet, I have a daughter who’s turning two — I’m so obsessed with the idea of her having those intergenerational relationships in her life.”
The interview instantly begged the question: how could someone who has been the subject such public interest in recent years — thanks in part to the hit TV series The Bear and long-running memes about Edebiri being Irish — have a secret family?
Immediately, something wasn’t adding up.
So, does Ayo Edebiri have a daughter or not?
As of October 2024, Ayo Edebiri does not have any children. The mistake arose from an issue with spacing and font of the article, where questions from the interviewer were difficult to differentiate from Edebiri’s answers. This made it tricky for some readers to decipher when Ayo had finished speaking and when Gyasi was offering an insight into her own experiences during the exchange.
This was actually confirmed later on in the interview by Edebiri, who says “I’m an only child, and so I’m always like, well, I guess if I have a kid they’ll have to have found family.” The instructive words here are “if I have a kid,” so all those who were sent into a tailspin of confusion can rest assured.
Edebiri is not the first victim of interview formatting issues spreading misinformation. In October of last year, an online frenzy began after fans of singer/actress Halle Bailey seemed to reveal she was married with two children in an interview with Glamour.
Although Halle and partner did welcome a son after keeping the pregnancy under wraps, this was not a quote from Bailey at all.
Rather, Glamour’s digital edition accidentally included questions from former Little Mix member Leigh-Anne Pinnock, who gave the same, word-for-word answer about her husband and twin daughters. The two interviews were accidentally emerged in the digital edition, giving the impression of one consistent interview.
If these corrections spread as quickly as fan freak-outs, there wouldn’t be all these celebrity mothers who aren’t actually mothers at all. In saying that, Edebiri is mother, just not the kind with children.