John Boyega Confirms His Marriage to Tae Heckard And Reveals Their Baby Boy Is Already Here

John Boyega has finally confirmed what internet detectives had already worked out: he married quietly nearly two years ago. But he had another surprise to share: he is already a father.

Earlier this month, Boyega told The Guardian that he had been married for “coming up to two years” and that he and his wife were expecting a baby boy. The revelation sparked a fresh round of headlines, although Boyega stopped short of naming his wife during the interview.

In September, we reported that Boyega and actress Tae Heckard appeared to have quietly confirmed their marriage after months of clues: wedding bands, increasingly couple-y photographs, their habit of following only one another on Instagram and John referring to Tae as “lover” while discussing her pounded yam and egusi. At the time, neither had explicitly announced a wedding, so we stopped short of calling it official.  

Now John has done the confirming himself. And apparently the “baby on the way” part was already out of date by the time everyone started congratulating him.

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Boyega posted new photographs on Instagram, including maternity pictures with Tae, and revealed: “Our bundle of joy has been with us for some time now but thank you for all the well wishes.” He then added that his sister is also about to give birth before signing off with, “Back to feeding this big baby!”  

So congratulations are actually due for the wedding and the baby boy. Tae, 48, also has an older son from her previous relationship with former NBA player Brandon Jennings, making John a stepfather as well as a new dad.  

And yes, there is something satisfying about seeing another woman in her late 40s welcome a child while the internet continues to talk about female fertility as though a switch flips off at 35. Fertility does decline with age, but women’s reproductive lives are considerably more individual and complicated than the doom-filled timelines regularly pushed online.

Mostly, though, I love how quietly these two have done all of this. While people were still trying to work out whether Tae Heckard and John Boyega had actually married, the couple had already welcomed their baby and were quietly settling into life as parents.