BJ Pascual belies accusations that he 'copied' Gigi Hadid's concept for Coleen Garcia's shoot

BJ Pascual spoke up against accusations that he "copied" Gigi Hadid's concept for Coleen Garcia's most recent maternity shoot for a cover of a magazine.

On his Instagram Stories under the highlight "Receipts," BJ said he decided to address the issue once and for all since he's been getting hate comments.

In one of the posts, he showed proof of the actual date of Coleen's maternity shoot which was held on August 1, weeks before Gigi released her photos.

"Dahil marmaing haterz.' Eto na po ang proof of purchase. August 1 pa po ang shoot namin. Gigi hadid's (undeniably stunning) photos were released August 26," he wrote.

BJ stressed that the similarity between Coleen and Gigi's maternity photos is just mere coincidence.

"So unless may psychic abilities ako or baka sobrang close siguro kami ni Gigi di ko lang alam (lol) Walang wala talagang way para 'kopyahin' namin yung shoot nila," Sadyang nagkataon lang. Stop making this an issue," he said.

BJ also directly addressed an entertainment website who accused him of copying the concept.

"While you're at it, please STOP pitting women against each other. Pati ba naman mga buntis?! 2020 na. May pandemya pa. Toxic ka pa rin. It's never too late for character development, siz," he wrote.

"Please be respectful naman of Filipino creatives. Some of us actually work hard on conceptualizing shoots to create images," he wrote in another post.

In BJ Pascual's "Behind The Scenes" vlog post featuring his maternity shoot with Coleen, he revealed that the concept behind the shoot was taken from one of the Rococo paintings "The Swing" by Jean-Honore Fragonard and the "Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli.

In the same vlog, Coleen revealed she is planning to give water birth at home.
Last month, Coleen posted a photo of her baby bump at nine months.

In June, the couple announced they are having a baby boy. —Jannielyn Ann Bigtas/JCB, GMA News