Beyoncé gives 'birth to twins'

A woman was photographed entering an LA hospital bearing a card that read 'B + J'

The exact date of the birth and gender of the babies has yet to be publicly announced

Beyoncé has reportedly given birth to twins in Los Angeles.

A number of reputable celebrity news websites reported the news on Saturday but the exact date of the birth and gender of the babies has yet to be publicly announced.

This follows almost a week of speculation about whether the pop superstar had secretly gone into labour. The Beyhive, the shared moniker given to Beyoncé’s devoted legion of fans, delighted in theorising about whether the singer had covertly welcomed her twins into the world.

Rumours then went into overdrive after a woman was photographed entering an LA hospital on Friday bearing a card that read "B + J".

Beyoncé announced she was expecting twins on the first day of February. The Instagram post immediately broke the internet, getting more than eight million likes in the first 24 hours, and smashing the Guinness World Record to officially become the most-liked post in the site's history.

Sharing an image of herself on the set of Edward Scissorhands, she told her 103 million followers: "We would like to share our love and happiness.

"We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes.”

She signed off the message "The Carters", a reference to herself, husband Jay-Z and their child, Blue Ivy, who is just five years old.

The striking image saw a heavily pregnant Beyoncé kneeling in front of a massive multi-coloured bed of flowers, gently caressing her baby bump, while covered by a long green veil and wearing light blue satin knickers and a maroon bra.

The musician, who is the most-nominated star in the history of the Grammy award, performed at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles two weeks later, cradling her growing bump in a motherhood-themed show.

Beyoncé has celebrated her pregnancy throughout, sharing a number of elaborate, arresting images of her bare baby bump.

The popstar, whose Lemonade album was the world's best-selling record of 2016, revealed she was pregnant with her first daughter Blue Ivy at the MTV music awards in 2011. Her appearance helped that year's awards become the most-watched broadcast in MTV history, attracting 12.4 million viewers. What's more, the announcement was listed in the Guinness World Records for ”most tweets per second recorded for a single event" on Twitter. It received a staggering 8,868 tweets per second.

A representative for Beyoncé did not immediately respond to a request for comment.