Jesse McCartney Knows Trying For a Baby ‘Is Not Always the Sexiest’

Despite his newest single, Jesse McCartney knows making a baby is not always the simplest — or the sexiest — task.

Speaking exclusively with Us Weekly earlier this month, McCartney, 37, opened up about the conversations with his wife, Katie Peterson, that partly inspired his new single, “Make a Baby,” featuring Yung Gravy.

“We had had a conversation about starting a family, and it’s, like, the things that you have to do in order to actually get the timing right on that kind of thing is not always the sexiest,” he told Us. “You have to perform at weird hours of the day sometimes. So that was sort of the inspiration for it, and then it turned into more of this goofy thing. But yeah, she loves the song.”

McCartney has written several songs inspired by his wife of two years, and shared that Peterson also has “a soft spot for it, for sure.”

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“Katie, she’s the best, but she’s definitely sometimes a hard nut to crack,” the “Beautiful Soul” singer gushed. “Once I do hit that soft spot, watching her melt is my favorite thing. It’s a hard thing to do. She’s got a few songs now written about her in her catalog. In my catalog.”

McCartney and Gravy’s single, “Make a Baby,” hit streaming services on March 1. Before the song dropped, McCartney shared a photo of himself via Instagram posing with a pregnant belly to tease the song’s release. So the photo wasn’t mistaken for a pregnancy announcement, he and Peterson called both of their parents to warn them about the post ahead of time.

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“I kind of knew it was going to be pandemonium in the comments section,” he said. “My wife and I called our parents the night before and we’re like, ‘Listen, there is a photo coming out tomorrow of a pregnant belly. It’s not us. We’re not pregnant,’ which they were very grateful for because I think they would’ve died if they found out on social media. But it did the job. We got people talking and it was just a fun marketing thing for the song.”

The couple tied the knot in October 2021 after nine years together. McCartney told Us that he and Peterson are “enjoying our newlywed life and taking it [one] step at the time,” but expanding their family will “be the next chapter, hopefully.”

“I think we’ll be good and we’re a good team,” he said. “Katie will be a great mom one day, so it’ll be good.”

Reporting by Christina Garibaldi