Pregnant Karoline Leavitt Postpones Maternity Leave to Hold Last-Minute White House Press Briefing

NEED TO KNOW

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt postponed her maternity leave to host a last-minute press briefing on Monday, April 27

• Leavitt announced last week that Friday, April 24, would be her last day of briefing the press for a little while because her second child was due "any minute"

• However, she returned to work following the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, which she was present for

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt postponed her maternity leave this week following the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner over the weekend.

Leavitt announced last week that Friday, April 24, was to be her last day on the job for a while , sharing that her second child with husband Nicholas Riccio is due "any minute." The White House has not shared plans to replace her, which may explain Leavitt's sudden return amid a busy news week in Washington.

The press secretary posted to X on Monday, April 27, that she would be conducting a press briefing at 1 p.m. ET, though she didn't offer any other information about its purpose at the time.

Leavitt, 28, and Riccio, 60, were in attendance at the Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, April 25, and the press secretary was seated onstage alongside President Donald Trump , first lady Melania Trump , Vice President JD Vance , entertainer Oz Pearlman and board members of the White House Correspondents' Association when a man charged past a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel.

Interim Washington, D.C., police chief Jeffery Carroll later told reporters that the suspect was "armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.” The incident took place at about 8:36 p.m., minutes after the event began, with attendees in the ballroom reporting that they heard shots fired and smelled gunpowder .

Minutes after the event was officially canceled, Leavitt and other senior members of the Trump administration reconvened at the White House for a press briefing, where the president called the suspect a "very sick person." U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that he would be facing at least two charges, including using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.

The suspect was later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif. White House officials told PEOPLE that Allen allegedly wrote a "manifesto" about his plans for the incident at the Correspondents' Dinner. "The suspect’s written manifesto clearly stated he wanted to target administration officials," they said.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Allen's brother told local police that Allen sent the writings to his family minutes before the shooting at the political event kicked off. His sister told the Secret Service and Montgomery County Police in an interview after the attack that Allen had allegedly made radical statements and would often refer to a plan to do "something" about the current state of the world.

Leavitt announced that she and Riccio were expecting their second child, a girl, in a December 2025 Instagram post.

“The greatest Christmas gift we could ever ask for - a baby girl coming in May 2026.☺️," she wrote in the caption of her post. The couple , who married in January 2025, also share a 1-year-old son, Nicholas "Niko" Robert Riccio.

The birth of Leavitt's first child also happened to coincide with an attack on Trump. Shortly after giving birth in July 2024, she decided to forgo maternity leave and return to work on the his presidential campaign following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,’ ” she told The Conservateur in an October 2024 interview.

Read the original article on People