Coronation Street’s Victoria Ekanoye gives birth! Actress welcomes baby boy with partner Jonny Lomas
Former Coronation Street star Victoria Ekanoye has welcomed a baby boy with her partner Jonny Lomas.
The actress, 37, took to Instagram on Sunday night to reveal the happy news as she held hands with her baby, writing: ‘Our prince, our love, our world, our miracle.’
The star is yet to reveal her son’s name after announcing her pregnancy in December.
Coronation Street’s Victoria Ekanoye has given birth! The actress revealed on Instagram on Sunday she has welcomed a baby boy with her partner Jonny Lomas
Victoria, who played Angie Appleton in the ITV soap, left the show in 2019.
She joked she had become pregnant in lockdown because there was ‘nothing else to do.’
Speaking to The Sun, she candidly explained: ‘A lockdown baby, what else were we to do? We’re due in January so it’s going to be an amazing start to 2021.’
She first announced her happy news in Hello! magazine at the beginning of November – when she was already six months pregnant.
The actress said she and her boyfriend Jonny decided to delay revealing their baby news, partly due to her suffering with sickle cell anaemia.
The couple, who celebrated their four-year anniversary in October, admitted that the pregnancy came as a ‘surprise’ as they had planned to start trying for a baby in 2021.
Victoria told the publication: ‘We thought we would try next year. So when this pregnancy came along we were like: “It’s happening”.
‘It did come as a bit of a surprise but it’s so unbelievably exciting.’
Pregnancy: Victoria, who is due to give birth to her first child in January, recently quipped that she became pregnant during lockdown as there was ‘nothing else to do’
Despite being thrilled at the prospect of becoming parents, Victoria had said there were a few reasons they decided to wait to tell their nearest and dearest the big news.
She explained: ‘We know friends that have miscarried and so we waited until we were 12 weeks before we even told our parents.
‘Then, with my health condition, we wanted a little bit more security and stability in knowing that everything is okay with baby and with me.’
Victoria was first diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia when she was just 22 years old and has dealt with the chronic illness ever since.
Surprise: Victoria, who played Angie Appleton in the ITV soap, has kept her first pregnancy extremely private, only announcing her happy news at the start of November
Sickle cell disease is when faulty stem cells produce red blood cells that are crescent shaped, leading to blockages that deprive parts of the body of oxygen.
She added: ‘Chronic illness in general is not easy to live with but to have that during Covid-19 and to be pregnant was a lot.’
The star added that because of her illness she is regarded as a ‘high-risk’ pregnancy and praised the ‘amazing’ health professionals at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester who’ve looked after her.
Victoria and Jonny have opted to have a hospital birth, with the TV star expected to be induced around 39 weeks, as she had to have a blood transfusion straight after the birth.
New chapter: The couple, who celebrated their four-year anniversary in October, admitted that the pregnancy came as a ‘surprise’ as they had planned to start trying for a baby in 2021