Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick has announced the safe arrival of her second child. The actress, who plays Vanessa Woodfield in the ITV soap, revealed back in July that she was pregnant with wife Kate Brooks. The couple took to social media to reveal the happy news alongside an adorable first snap of their new arrival.
Michelle, 46, and Kate, who is a producer on Emmerdale, already share a son named Teddy. Kate gave birth to their first child, who is two, in October 2020.
She shared a sweet black and white photo of her and her baby girl after the birth and another photo of her newborn daughter snuggled up in a pram. "Introducing Betty Brooks to the world," Michelle typed alongside the images.
She went on: "Betty made a cheeky early appearance on Tuesday 15th November weighing 5lb 10ozs. We all love you so much our beautiful Betty B." Her co-stars and celebrity pals were quick to flood the comments section with congratulatory messages.
Natalia Ann Jamieson, who plays Emmerdale's Amy Wyatt, said: "Beautiful Betty Brooks!!!" The ITV soap's Dawn Fletcher actress Olivia Bromley wrote: "Oh Congratulations to you both." Former soap star Natalie Anderson commented: "Aaah soooo gorgeous! Such a beautiful name too! Congratulations you guys."
Coronation Street star Julia Goulding, who also announced the arrival of her second child, a baby girl, earlier this week, penned: "Congratulations!! She’s beautiful. Love her name too." Georgia Taylor, who plays Corrie's Toyah Habeeb, wrote: "Huge congratulations to you both and such a darling name." Gogglebox star Izzi Warner also added: "Omg absolutely LOVE her name. Congratulation."
Taking to Instagram in August, Michelle revealed that she and Kate were expecting baby number two. The actress, who returned to the Dales last year, shared a photo of a large TV screen in their announcement and penned: "COMING THIS WINTER... Baby Brooks #2." Underneath the TV, their son could be seen putting his hands up and grinning in clear excitement.
A month later, Michelle and Kate, who got married at Elvis Presley's iconic Graceland in Memphis, spoke on Loose Wome about their IVF journey for both their son and now their daughter. The donor is the same one they used for Teddy, so the siblings will be biologically related.
"We didn’t really know much about it," Michelle admitted about the process. "It was as simple as: ‘what characteristics, what colour hair’ and we were like ‘we don’t really know, as long as they’re kind and a lovely person’, but they sent through two donor CVs." They explained how they haven't seen a photo of the donor but said they wanted to choose someone who was "kind, intelligent and had good family attributes".
On the decision for Michelle to carry their babies, the actress shared: “I’m 46 now, so when we started with Teddy, my eggs weren’t going to be amazing." Kate added: “I was 37, so even for me, it was still touch and go as to whether they’d get a lot of eggs. But luckily for us I was pretty fertile."
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