Activist, TV personality and professor Marc Lamont Hill has welcomed his newborn son, Malcolm Kamau Valle-Hill, into the world.
Hill’s partner, Melissa M. Valle, who has been serving as an assistant professor at Rutgers University’s Newark campus, announced the news via a now-deleted Instagram post. The baby was reportedly born on Apr. 10–ten days before his due date and his mom affectionally called him “Mau Mau.”
“Malcolm Kamau is our quiet warrior, our teacher, our rebel who has traversed from womb to the world on his own time, in his own special way,” she wrote. “My heart is bursting with a love supreme, while it is also heavy as we wait anxiously for the day when Mau Mau can leave the NICU and be home with [Marc and I]. These are beautiful and difficult days, and I ask for all of your patience and grace as we navigate what it means to be a #NICUmom and #NICUdad.”
Valle also said that she previously planned to reveal her pregnancy with maternity shoot photographs. However, it never happened because she gave birth prematurely.
“I planned to reveal that we’re pregnant using babymoon pics on the beach (cuz come on, it’s Valle) that we were going to take during our trip to LA next week,” she wrote in another post. “As an alternative, I planned to reveal that we’re pregnant with the pics from our maternity shoot scheduled for Apr. 15. I planned to keep it under wraps until I felt I was well into my third trimester. But plans are tricky bastards, ain’t they?”
At just 29 weeks, her water broke unexpectedly.
“I was minding my business by myself in Target on Thursday, at 29 weeks, looking at bathing suits for this babymoon, when SPLASH (just like on TV). My water broke—-Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM),” she said.
Hill, who has always been private about his personal life, was also reported to have a daughter. However, her name and exact age, as well as her mother’s identity, has been unknown to the public.
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Back in 2012, he opened up to Ebony about raising his first child while being a successful businessman.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to co-parent my daughter in healthy and functional ways. It shows there are multiple ways to raise a healthy child. Because my schedule is demanding, my daughter’s mother has been flexible, and I’m grateful for that,” he told the magazine. “I’m sure my daughter has been to more TV studios and lectures than she’d have liked to be, but even those moments create opportunities to bond with her, and that means everything.”
