Mark Wright admitted the prospect of starting a family with his wife, actress Michelle Keegan, was “tough work”, eight years before announcing her pregnancy.
The couple, both 37, revealed in separate Instagram posts on Sunday that they will welcome their first child together in the new year.
But Mark had previously insisted he would wait “a year or two” before starting a family with former Coronation Street star Michelle, whom he married in 2015, with the couple opting to put their careers first.
Appearing on Loose Women in 2016, she said: “It’s hard work with the pressure of having babies.”
The former TOWIE cast member admitted that a lot of the pressure came from his own family, as well as the expectation that any children they had would inherit his good looks.
He joked: “We’re going to give birth to an ugly duckling and disappoint everyone.”
Mark Wright admitted the prospect of starting a family with his wife, actress Michelle Keegan, was “tough work”, eight years before announcing her pregnancy.
Appearing on Loose Women in 2016, Mark insisted he would wait “a year or two” before starting a family with former Coronation Street star Michelle.
‘Aunt Debbie is the first of the sisters to become a grandmother and she tells my mother every day that being a grandmother is so much better than being a mother.
—So now my mother is on our case. Hurry up and make it happen, I want to be a grandmother.’
He added: “I think we have another year or two of complaints left and we’ll have to do it.” When she gives birth, there will be 300 Wrights around her.
Michelle also revealed her ‘frustration’ with the constant questions she received about her plans to have a baby.
Speaking to You magazine in 2021, she also said: ‘I’m used to people asking me, but it’s no one else’s business.
‘No one else knows what happens behind closed doors. I think that’s why that question affects me so much: it’s very private!
“Mark gets asked about this from time to time, but I get asked about it all the time.”
When asked if his family still asked him about his plans, he confessed: “Not anymore!” People mean no harm by this, but they know what the response will be.
Michelle previously revealed her ‘frustration’ at the constant questions she received about her plans to have a baby with Mark.
During a 2019 interview, Michelle, who was 32 at the time, spoke of her “frustration” with being constantly asked, saying, “Nowadays, you shouldn’t ask questions like that.”
She said: ‘They don’t know the background of what’s happening. It’s no one else’s business.
‘I feel very frustrated. They ask me simply because I am a woman. But now I’m immune to it; It’s like a reaction and as soon as I hear it I dismiss it as it’s nobody else’s business.’
The actress and Netflix TV host confirmed the happy news in a joint Instagram post on Sunday, sharing a sweet photo of Michelle cradling her burgeoning baby bump.
They captioned the post: ‘2025 will be special for us…’
Former Coronation Street star Michelle married Mark in May 2015 and the couple live together in an Essex mansion they built from scratch.
The actress announced this Sunday the happy news that she and her husband are expecting their first child together.
Heart Radio presenter Mark, who rose to fame on ITVBe series TOWIE, is already an uncle to footballer brother Josh’s two children, as well as his sister Jess’s son, and has spoken out over the years about his desire to become a father one day.
Michelle’s pregnancy comes a year after she starred in the Netflix drama Fool Me Once, which became one of the most-watched shows of all time.
Harlan Coben’s adaptation saw Michelle play military pilot Maya Stern and was an instant global hit, with over 98,200,200 views in its first 91 days.
She began her career on ITV’s Coronation Street, where she played Tina for six years before leaving the Cobbles in 2014.
Her first serious post-soap role was in the BBC drama Our Girl, which aired the same year she married her husband Mark, who left TOWIE in 2011 after three seasons.
In recent years he has also starred in the historical drama Ten Pound Poms, filmed in Australia, and the Sky TV comedy Brassic.
Michelle’s pregnancy comes a year after she starred in the Netflix drama Fool Me Once, which became one of the most-watched shows of all time.