Bouncing baby news for Hollyoaks' Alex Fletcher, who is Diane O'Connor in the Channel 4 soap, and former Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh
Hollyoaks actress Alex Fletcher says the birth of her baby son was 'the best birthday present' as she prepares to turn 40.
Baby Hanson was born by Caesarean section and weighed 8lb 9oz on June 3, just weeks before Alex’s milestone birthday on July 8.
The Liverpudlian star told Hello! magazine: “Hanson is the best birthday present I could wish for.”
She added: “I have my two kids, a lovely husband and we are all healthy.”
In 2015, Alex suffered an ectopic pregnancy which is why Hanson’s safe arrival is all the more special.
“Having the ectopic pregnancy last year was sad and scary,” she said.
“It made me really negative and doubt that it would ever happen. I wondered whether things were not working properly because I was older. You think, ‘It’s my fault. Have I been selfish?’
She continued: “It made me realise how much I wanted another baby. Having gone through all that has made his arrival all the more precious.”
The actress, who first found fame as Jacqui Dixon in ground-breaking 1980s soap Brookside, has played Hollyoaks’ Diane O’Connor since 2010.
She has an 11-year-old daughter with her 39-year-old physiotherapist husband Neil Davies. The couple met when Neil appeared in Brookside as Jacqui’s errant boyfriend Robbie Moffat.
Alex told the magazine that it took four months to become pregnant again after she and her husband started trying for a baby.
Meanwhile, former Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh is pregnant with her second child.
The 34-year-old has revealed she discovered she and husband Justin Scott would become parents for a second time just weeks after celebrating their wedding in January.
She told Hello!: “We knew soon after we got married that we’d be very happy for baby number two to come along. When I first met Justin 14 years ago, I told him I wanted four children… We’re both over the moon.”
The couple’s son Bobby is 21 months old.
Kimberley married Justin, a property developer and former member of boy band Triple 8, during an intimate ceremony in Barbados.
Her former Girls Aloud bandmates Cheryl and Nicola Roberts were bridesmaids and they were also among the first to find out she was expecting again.
“Before I had even taken a test, I knew it instinctively,” she said.
“I wasn’t suffering from morning sickness, but tell-tale changes in my body made me certain I was expecting. When I took a home test early one morning to make sure, it confirmed what I’d already sensed. I was thrilled. The first thing I did was to wake up Justin and tell him, ‘You’re going to be a daddy again!’”
She said she feels more 'chilled' during this pregnancy because she knows what to expect.
