EastEnders star Kellie Bright is pregnant with her third child.
The actress, 44, revealed she is expecting a 'miracle' third child with husband Paul, 38, after undergoing a frozen embryo transfer.
The couple are already parents to Freddy, nine, and Gene, four, with the family's new arrival due in August.
Kellie welcomed her first son Freddy naturally at the age of 34 before having IVF treatment for her second pregnancy after she and Paul struggled to conceive.
After Gene was born, Kellie made the decision to store three extra embryos for potential use later.
Following failed attempts at pregnancy with two of them, the third and final embryo became the couple's third child.
Kellie admitted it had been a 'rollercoaster' trying to complete her family, but she considers herself and Paul the lucky ones.
Sharing her journey in OK! magazine, Kellie said: "It has nothing to do with the boys not being enough – they absolutely are. It’s just I never felt like I was done. I always had an itch, a desire to have more. My husband and I went round in circles for a couple of years deciding whether or not to just go for the third.
"I have a demanding full-time job and the reality of having a baby and a toddler within all of that is overwhelming, and we weren’t quite ready. But I had such an emotional attachment to those embryos. I know they’re cells but they have the potential to be another Gene! I couldn’t let it go. Eventually, we decided to go ahead at the end of 2019... and then Covid-19 happened.
"I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. Suddenly, Paul and I were having conversations about not having more kids. Everything felt so uncertain. But by the end of the first lockdown, we did a complete 180. Having that precious time at home with our boys, doing simple things, we knew we had to try to make it happen. So we waited for the clinics to reopen and started a frozen embryo transfer, which is less invasive than the initial IVF and only involved implanting the embryos."
Kellie said after the first two attempts failed, she also feared for the third and final embryo as she revealed she had a bleed two days before she was due to take the pregnancy test.
Kellie said after the first two attempts failed, she also feared for the third and final embryo as she revealed she had a bleed two days before she was due to take the pregnancy test.
The actress said she was left in floods of tears, believing her dream was over.
When the test came back as positive, Kellie said she almost fell to the floor with emotion.
She describes running down the stairs to tell Paul and sobbing so hard he couldn't understand what she was saying.
"I knew it was my last chance, so the fact it was a positive was so unbelievably wonderful. A truly wonderful, crazy life moment," Kellie told OK!
The actress revealed she and Paul waited until their 12-week scan to share the happy news with their sons who were thrilled to become big brothers.
She also let her EastEnders co-star Lacey Turner in on the news first, as she was pregnant at the same time.
