Fifi Box has revealed the clever fashion tricks she used to keep her first pregnancy under wraps while appearing on live television during Melbourne Cup week back in 2012.
The reveal came off the back of Lady Gaga’s secret baby reveal after she was spotted carrying a newborn bubba over the weekend.
Speaking on Fifi, Fev & Nick, the radio host looked back on the months before she publicly announced she was expecting her daughter, Trixie, explaining that she was already around 17 weeks pregnant while fronting Channel 7’s Melbourne Cup coverage.
Fifi Box reveals how she hid her pregnancy
Fifi explained that, at the time, she was juggling several high-profile hosting duties, including celebrity interviews in the Birdcage and presenting Myer Fashions on the Field.
“When I was pregnant with Trixie, I was part of the Channel 7 sports coverage of the Melbourne Cup. So not only was I working with Jo Griggs, I was doing the Birdcage. So you’d cross to me chatting with celebs in the Birdcage, but I was also hosting Meyer’s Fashions on the Field.”
Although she was well into her pregnancy, Fifi said she wasn’t ready to share the news publicly, particularly because she was suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness.
“I was 17 weeks pregnant, but I hadn’t made a public announcement yet. This is my first pregnancy,” she recalled.
“I was doing it tough, because I had hyperemesis, I was very sick. So I didn’t want to talk about it yet, and I was nearly 20 weeks, and my stylist and I, she was trying to cover it. So I had peplums, because I was up on stage at Fashions on the Field.”
To disguise her growing bump, Fifi said her stylist dressed her in outfits featuring peplums — a flared piece of fabric attached around the waist.
After co-host Brendan Fevola admitted he wasn’t familiar with the fashion trend, Fifi explained exactly what it was. “It’s like a little apron over your tummy, like in the old days,” she shared. “You can get a skirt or a dress, and then it’s got a bit of material that kicks out. It’s an actual fashion style. It’s not like an actual apron.”
Fifi joked that she became increasingly convinced everyone would notice she was wearing the same silhouette throughout Melbourne Cup Carnival.
“I remember saying to the intimate crew that knew I was pregnant, ‘Isn’t this just obvious?’ Like every outfit, and I was hosting fashions on the field from Derby right through to Stakes Day,” she recounted.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t you think people are going to go, what’s with Fifi and her peplums?'”
As it turned out, the styling trick worked perfectly.
Fifi recalled her mum sitting in the front row trying to work out whether her baby bump was visible beneath the outfits.
“Mum was in the front row and I was up on stage, and I had mum looking up at me to try and figure out if you could see under the peplum,” she shared.
She went on to reveal that another “clever” tactic involved wearing outlandish fascinators on her head so people “wouldn’t look at my tummy”.
Years later, Fifi can laugh about the elaborate effort, with oversized fascinators and carefully chosen peplum outfits proving to be the perfect disguise until she was ready to share her pregnancy news publicly.
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