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The Keshia Chanté pregnancy news arrived Tuesday as the Canadian singer and former “106 & Park” host revealed her growing baby bump and celebrated becoming a mother. Chanté shared black-and-white maternity photos on Instagram while expressing her excitement about meeting her baby and creating a lifetime of memories together. The outlet reported this will be her first child.
Chanté made it clear that the baby’s father is part of the journey, but she did not reveal his identity. In her announcement, she wrote that “Mommy & Daddy” were excited to welcome their child before joking about the baby already having a future in music. “Dada’s got your studio locked, and we expect your album to drop summer 2027,” Chanté wrote.
That studio reference, combined with more than two decades of history between Chanté and Drake, was apparently all social media needed.
Speculation quickly began circulating that Drake could be the father. Chanté revealed through a Hello! maternity feature that she is expecting a baby boy. Chanté herself, however, has not publicly identified Drake as the father or named the man with whom she is expecting her child.
Drake’s camp did not leave the rumors hanging for long. His representative Melissa Nathan told TMZ that the team could “completely and unequivocally deny” the “inaccurate” speculation that Drake fathered Chanté’s baby.
Still, the reason the rumor mill went directly to Drake is not difficult to understand. The two are not simply celebrities who happen to know each other. Their relationship stretches back to their teenage years in Canada, long before Drake became one of the biggest artists in music and before Chanté became familiar to American audiences through BET.
Their romantic history has also been acknowledged publicly by Drake himself. During his All Canadian North Stars concert in Toronto in July 2022, Drake personally brought Chanté to the stage and introduced her as his first girlfriend. Drake told the audience he once drove his mother’s car across the city to see Chanté before calling her “my first girlfriend I ever had in my life” and “someone I love with all of my heart.”
That moment gave newer fans a very public reminder that the connection between them was more than internet folklore. It also added another chapter to years of Drake referencing Chanté and their early relationship through music and interviews.
One of Drake’s early recordings, “Deceiving,” directly referenced Chanté’s mother, Tessa, while discussing his feelings about her daughter.
The pair later crossed paths publicly on “106 & Park,” where Chanté became a host. Reporting about that appearance has repeatedly noted that Drake described her as one of his earliest crushes and acknowledged that he had written about her before.
Then there is the “Kiki” conversation.
For years, some listeners have speculated that Chanté was the “Kiki” referenced in Drake’s massive 2018 hit “In My Feelings.” That theory became so widespread that it remains attached to their relationship online. However, the connection has never been definitively established by Drake, and The Independent noted that dancer K’yanna Barber later said she was the Kiki referenced in the song. In other words, the Chanté theory became part of Drake lore, but it should not be treated as confirmed fact.
What is confirmed is that Chanté and Drake have maintained a bond long after their teenage romance ended. In a 2024 interview with Le Journal de Québec, Chanté described Drake as her first boyfriend while discussing the friendships she formed as a young artist. She said the two remained close, describing their relationship as almost familial and revealing that they had spoken recently at the time of the interview.
That history helps explain why the Keshia Chanté pregnancy announcement became Drake speculation almost instantly. Fans had a teenage romance, years of musical references, public reunions, and a friendship that both artists have openly acknowledged to work with.
Chanté has not publicly revealed who the man in her life is, but it’s clear that it’s not Drizzy.
