Californian model Danielle Herrington revealed that she had no idea that she was pregnant during her shoot for this year’s swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.
“Four days after the shoot I found out that I was pregnant,” Herrington told the New York Post.
Herrington said that she first took a total of seven pregnancy tests before her doctor later confirmed the news. “I found out I was about five-weeks pregnant,” she recalled. “And I was in complete shock.” She went on to add, “I was like, ‘No, I need to be certain. I need to be for sure’.”
She said that after a rough first trimester, she can’t wait to welcome her baby boy. Herrington is in a relationship with fellow model Geron McKinley.
“I’m excited to birth him, see his face and watch him grow,” she added. Her son is due in September.
“It was just so nice, first of all, to see everyone again and be back on set with the crew,” she says of the S.I. photoshoot, which took place in January. “… It was a bit cold, I think that was probably the only challenge, but I was just so happy to be there, and feel a sense of normalcy. I wouldn’t say it was challenging. I was just happy to be back. I definitely felt like I had to bring it just because I felt like it’d been a while, but I feel like I have to bring it every shoot.”
Herrington first appeared in Sports Illustrated when she appeared as the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl, making her the third African-American to do so after Beyoncé in 2005 and Tyra Banks in 1997.
In 2016, she told G.Q. that if she were not a model, she’d have traveled down a completely different path.
“In school my major was Psychology, I always thought it was really cool how the mind works, so would I be interested in becoming a child psychiatrist,” she shared.
