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‘I was definitely thinking, ‘Everyone knows, everyone can see,’ ‘ B says of hiding bump before MTV VMA reveal.
By James Montgomery

Beyoncé at the 2011 VMAs

Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Before she announced her pregnancy to the entire world at the 2011 Video Music Awards, Beyoncé was worried that everyone would figure out her secret … after all, it was getting rather difficult to hide that baby bump.

“The whole time, I was definitely thinking, ‘Everyone knows, everyone can see,’ ” B told Billboard.com before the screening of her new “Live at Roseland” concert film on Sunday in New York.

She was especially sure that she’d been found out after putting on the shows that make up that film — her four-night stand at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom in August — when she was very much with child and, by her own account, had a difficult time performing with her usual ferocity.

“When you’re pregnant, it’s a little bit harder to breathe,” she said, “so it was hard doing all the choreography and singing at the same time.”

Of course, watching clips from the film — when a perfectly locked-in B performed a medley of hits while backed by a cracking, all-female backing band — you wouldn’t know it. But now that she’s revealed her pregnancy to the world, Beyoncé joked that “Roseland” will serve another purpose altogether … namely, giving her and Jay-Z’s child (who just might be a girl) a chance to say “I can’t believe I was in that belly!”

Beyoncé’s “Live at Roseland” film made its world premiere Monday (November 21) online, and is available for purchase at Walmart and on the Net. She can also be heard on a duet with Mary J. Blige on “Love a Woman,” a standout track on Blige’s just-released My Life II … The Journey Continues, Act I.

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