Naomi Osaka revealed how difficulties from her first pregnancy affected her plans to have more kids in the future.
Osaka, 26, took to TikTok on Sunday, August 18, to respond to a comment from a fan asking whether she is expecting her second baby with rapper Cordae.
“I just wanna say, I’m not preggos, but if I was, I wouldn’t want many more,” the professional tennis player said in the video. “Because giving birth was traumatic. But thank you, though, for your blessings.”
Osaka became a mom when she welcomed daughter Shai in July 2023. Before giving birth, Osaka reflected on the major milestone.
“The past few years have been interesting to say the least, but I find that it’s the most challenging times in life that may be the most fun,” she wrote via Instagram in January 2023 about her pregnancy news. “These few months away from the sport has really given me a new love and appreciation for the game I’ve dedicated my life to. I realize that life is so short and I don’t take any moments for granted, every day is a new blessing and adventure. I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future, one thing I’m looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, ‘That’s my mom.’ Haha.”
The athlete clarified that she had plans to return to tennis after welcoming her first baby, adding, “2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me and I hope I’ll see you guys in the start of the next one cause I’ll be at Aus 2024. Love you all infinitely. I don’t think there’s a perfectly correct path to take in life, but I always felt that if you move forward with good intentions, you’ll find your way eventually.”
After welcoming Shai last year, Osaka revealed she experienced a number of complications with her pregnancy. She specifically tested positive for Group B streptococcus — a bacterial infection that can give newborns meningitis or sepsis — and was in labor for over 12 hours.
“I don’t think people know how hard pregnancy is. No one really talks about it as much,” she told InStyle in December 2023 about the difficulties with pregnancy. “Going into it, you kind of think, ‘Oh, it’s this beautiful journey.’ But it’s kind of rough.”
At the time, Osaka also told ESPN that she had an “itch” to play tennis again after taking a break from training and traveling.
“I definitely only know this world, the tennis world, and just being away from that for a long time, it was new for me,” she told the outlet in September 2023. “I think it was just the whole new situation and not being able to train like I wanted to things like that, it kind of made me feel like I just had to stay at home, and you know how doctors tell you not to travel after a certain amount of weeks, it just felt like a lot of restrictions. I think that was what it was.”