Truly, we didn’t see this coming. But we never really do when it comes to Beyoncé.

The megastar announced she was pregnant with twins in a flower-filled, belly-revealing portrait posted to Instagram Wednesday. “We have been blessed two times over,” the caption reads. “We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes.”

Beyoncé hid the news well. It’s not as if she hasn’t been spotted out and about lately: She reportedly came to the White House in early January for a celebrity-filled goodbye party for the Obamas.

Wednesday’s announcement was met by total shock on social media, where the topic “BEYONCE IS HAVING TWINS” — yes, in all caps — trended on Twitter. In a world where anyone with a smartphone, a signal and a bunch of time on their hands can turn into a sleuth, the details and contours of Beyoncé’s life and work have been remarkably kept under wraps.

This discipline extends to her professional output. Beyoncé has been able to record and produce; shoot and finish albums; and film dozens of music videos nearly entirely under the radar. While some of her most die-hard fans follow tea leaves incredibly closely and speculate as to what’s around the corner, Beyoncé generally presents a master class for super-famous people in the art of controlling the narrative.

This is the woman who in 2013 dropped her surprise, self-titled visual album on a Friday night, immediately causing a social-media frenzy. And as if we didn’t learn our lesson, she basically did the same thing two years later with “Formation.” She posted the music video to social media on a Saturday afternoon and about 24 hours later, performed the song during the Super Bowl halftime show. By then, plenty of Americans had played the song on repeat; “Formation” was no longer a new release.

It hasn’t always been this way for Beyoncé, whose album “4” leaked onto the internet in 2011. “While this is not how I wanted to present my new songs,” she said in a statement at the time, “I appreciate the positive response from my fans.”

But considering how a music video from Beyoncé can spawn a week of essays and podcasts and SNL sketches, the star has remarkably let little leak since, including details of her personal life.