“I just don’t get it. First of all, I’m months away from my due date, not even close this time,” Paytas, 36, said on the April 22 episode of her Just Trish podcast. (Her due date is in July.) “He’s not even part of the British monarchy. Is it just any influential person that dies who gets reincarnated as my baby?”
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church since 2013, passed away at age 88 after suffering a cerebral stroke, leading to a coma and “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse,” as confirmed by the Vatican.
“Honestly, I don’t get it,” Paytas continued, responding to the rumors about her unborn baby being Pope Francis. “If King Charles [III] had died, I’d be like, ‘OK.’ But the Pope is pretty far removed from Queen Elizabeth [II]. I don’t understand why my womb is supposedly carrying all these souls.”
Podcast cohost Oscar Gracey explained that the theory likely stems from the death of a “historic person of power” coinciding with Paytas being pregnant, causing people to connect the two events.
“So my baby is going to absorb that?” Paytas questioned, jokingly pointing out that Pope Francis passed away at her favorite number, 88.
While Paytas and her husband, Moses Hacmon, have not revealed the sex of their baby, Gracey joked that if the baby is a boy, they’ll be unable to escape the “baby Pope” rumors.
“If it’s a boy, I guess so. I guess we’re naming it … Pope isn’t a bad name,” Paytas laughed. “There are also girls named Francis, so we could have a girl named Pope Francis. My dad’s name is Francis, so I’ll take Pope, I guess. That’s better than Charles.”
Laughing at the absurdity of the situation, Paytas added, “I just don’t know how that happens. How is that actually going into my … how do I absorb it? I guess I’ve been manifesting that. Gosh, I’m so powerful.”
When Hacmon mentioned that reincarnation is believed to occur within a 49-day window, Paytas noted that her due date falls outside of that timeframe.
“Sorry, y’all. I wish the Pope could have hung in there a little longer,” she joked. “Maybe I’ll go into labor early. We’ll see. Please no … but I’ll let you know if I start feeling a little holier.”
In March, Paytas revealed that she and Hacmon are expecting their third child, announcing, “MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN! BABY #3 COMING JULY 2025 .”
The theory that Paytas’ children are reincarnations of famous historical figures began when her previous pregnancies coincided with significant events: Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 and King Charles’ cancer diagnosis in early 2024. Paytas and Hacmon welcomed their daughter, Malibu Barbie, in September 2022, and their son, Elvis, in June 2024.
In a February 2024 TikTok, Paytas admitted, “I get the meme of it all. I was able to lean into the Queen Elizabeth one a little bit, but it also terrifies me that people believe in it enough.”
