The world watched in awe as reports surfaced of a woman carrying a record-breaking ten babies.

BREAKING UPDATE (June 23, 2021): In a shocking turn of events, the Gauteng Provincial government has released a bombshell statement. According to official medical tests, Gosiame Sithole had not given birth recently, nor had she even been pregnant. Read on to see how one of the biggest medical stories of the decade unfolded—and unraveled.

A South African woman reportedly gave birth to 10 babies, in what was initially celebrated as a breathtaking new world record. The story of Gosiame Thamara Sithole’s decuplets sent shockwaves across the globe, especially considering early scans only showed eight babies in the womb.

“I Am Emotional. I Can’t Talk Much.”

Following the supposed birth, Sithole’s husband, Teboho Tsotetsi, expressed sheer astonishment.

“It’s seven boys and three girls. I am happy. I am emotional. I can’t talk much,” Tsotetsi told Pretoria News in the immediate aftermath.

Sithole and her husband detailed a harrowing but miraculous pregnancy journey before the truth came to light.

The details seemed incredibly specific. A family member, who requested anonymity, told the BBC that Ms. Sithole had delivered the 10 babies through a combination of methods—five via natural birth and five via caesarean section. One South African official even initially confirmed the births to the BBC, though another cautiously noted they had yet to actually see the infants.

Chasing the Guinness World Record

The sheer scale of this reported birth immediately caught the attention of Guinness World Records, who launched an investigation into Ms. Sithole’s case.

To put this in perspective, multiple births of this magnitude are incredibly rare, especially when conceived naturally, as the couple claimed. Most pregnancies involving large numbers of babies end prematurely, according to BBC Africa’s health reporter Rhoda Odhiambo.

• The Current Record Holder: A woman in the US (dubbed “Octomom”) who delivered eight surviving babies in 2009.
• The Recent Contender: Just a month prior, 25-year-old Halima Cissé from Mali safely gave birth to nine babies at a clinic in Morocco.

The prospect of ten surviving decuplets would have shattered all existing medical records.

Prayers, Sleepless Nights, and A Web of Lies?

Before the story collapsed under government medical testing, Ms. Sithole, 37—who had previously given birth to twins now aged six—painted a picture of a grueling 29-week pregnancy.

Speaking to the press a month before her supposed due date, she described the journey as “tough at the beginning.” She claimed to have spent countless sleepless nights praying for a healthy delivery, plagued by logistical fears.

“How would they fit in the womb? Would they survive?” she reportedly asked herself.

She even detailed a medical scare where two of the initial eight fetuses were “in the wrong tube,” an issue she claimed doctors successfully resolved. Her husband echoed her sentiments, stating he felt like “one of God’s chosen children” and calling the pregnancy a miracle he deeply appreciated.

The miracle unraveled when government medical tests confirmed there had been no recent pregnancy or birth.

While the world prepared to welcome ten new lives and celebrate an unprecedented medical marvel, the truth proved to be much stranger than fiction. The “Pretoria Decuplets” will go down in history—not as a medical miracle, but as one of the most elaborate and viral hoaxes of the digital age.

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Note: All images used in this article are AI-generated and intended for illustrative purposes only.