In July 2019, Twitter believed that the Sun Baby from Teletubbies had her own baby now, and people freaked out. It started when someone shared a picture of Jess Smith holding a smiley, blonde-haired child in her arms and claimed she was the mother. The tweet went viral, getting over 200,000 likes and triggering a mass midlife crisis.
“This has made me feel 800 years old,” BBC Radio 1’s Greg James wrote in response, and he wasn’t alone. Replies from shocked users kept rolling in, with most either bemoaning their age or expressing horror at the idea of the former Sun Baby engaging in intercourse (“That must’ve been hot,” one user quipped). As it turned out, they were panicking over nothing — the baby in the picture wasn’t Smith’s.
The image from the viral tweet was actually an old promotional shot of Smith and baby Berry, who plays the Sun Baby in the Teletubbies reboot. Still, the rumor persisted, forcing the show to speak out and quash it. “No, the Teletubbies [Sun Baby] didn’t have a baby,” the official Teletubbies Twitter account confirmed. The image in question had been around since 2015, when Smith happily passed the Sun Baby torch. “When I was growing up I was always so proud of my involvement in Teletubbies,” she told Digital Spy at the time. “Having met baby Berry and seeing how adorable she is I can’t think of anyone better to take over the role.”