'Bachelor' Sean Lowe, Catherine Giudici Pregnancy Hoax: April Fools' Instagram Joke Causes Infertility Controversy

Is there a baby in the oven for The Bachelor stars Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici or are they pulling a big ole April Fools' joke on all of us? The couple might have tied the knot last January and it would seem like they were getting ready to expand their family, but the picture that Giudici posted to Instagram seems like it is one big hoax.

Catherine posted an image to her Instagram account earlier today, where she stands in the bathroom with what looks like a baby bump propped up onto the counter. To further make her followers think she was with child, the Bachelor winner captioned the picture, "17 weeks."

 17 weeks :)

A photo posted by Catherine Lowe (@catherinegiudici) on Apr 1, 2015 at 6:24am PDT

However, according to E! News, a rep confirmed that the whole thing was just a playful April Fools' Day joke.

But, in our defense, Giudici did explain to the news site before her star-studded nuptials back in January 2014 that Sean and her were going to try to start working for kids "probably about a year," after they were married.

Well it's been a more than a year, so we definitely feel for this one.

While some could laugh the joke off, it appears that others were enraged that Giudici posted the image to the social media site. A handful of her followers criticized her for making light of a situation where some women and men are unable to get pregnant.

One user used the picture to rant about infertility issues, writing, "Infertility affects nearly 7.3 million man and woman. Infertility is a heart-wrenching, faith-questioning, relationship-testing, life-altering experience. April is Infertility Awareness Month (ironic). Lets break the silence. So many insensitive bullies here."

We can't wait for Catherine to be officially pregnant. We just hope for our sake she doesn't announce it next year on April Fools' Day.