Justin Bieber has apologised for an April Fools' Day prank in which he suggested that his wife Hailey was pregnant with their first child, after people called him out for being insensitive to those who can't have children.

On April 1 the singer posted an image of a sonogram to his Instagram account with no caption, with a second post following, showing Hailey being examined by a doctor with her stomach on show, with the caption, "If U thought it was April fools."

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A third post revealed it as actually being an April Fools' prank, with Justin captioning an image of a dog in a sonogram, "Wait omg is that a... APRIL FOOLS."

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Following a backlash, the 25-year-old took to social media to apologise to anyone he offended with the joke.

"There’s always gonna be people offended, there’s also people who don’t take jokes very well, I am a prankster and it was APRIL FOOLS. I didn’t at all mean to be insensitive to people who can’t have children," he said.

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"A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April Fools is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction.

"But I will apologize anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended. I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank. It’s like when I shoved cake in my little sisters face for her birthday expecting her to laugh but she cried.

"You sometimes just don’t know what will hurt someone’s feelings not to compare pregnancy with cake in the face but it’s just to paint the picture of not knowing what will offend. Some might have laughed but some were offended .. I think with pranks u sometimes have to roll that dice. #prankster #dennisthemenace #sorry #truly"