Actor and singer Shayne Ward has reflected on his surprise at welcoming his newborn son after being told he and his fiancée Sophie Austin were expecting a baby girl.
X Factor and Coronation Street star Ward and Hollyoaks star Austin welcomed their second child, Reign, on 11 June.
The couple also share a five-year-old daughter, Willow.
Speaking to the new issues of Hello! magazine about Reign's birth, Ward said: "For nine months, you believe you're having a girl.
"But a healthy baby is a healthy baby. Your initial reaction is, 'Excuse me?!' but more than anything I just wanted the baby to be okay. And he absolutely was."
Speaking about Willow's reaction to her new brother, Ward said: "We've let her come around him in her own time.
"It's been really heart-warming to see how she's built her own little friendship with him already.
"Every morning she says, 'Can I see him, can I see him?' She was reading stories to him last night and is always wanting to be near him."
Shayne Ward and fiancée Sophie Austin introduce baby boy and reveal his name https://t.co/7ZKO2FlHaN
— HELLO! (@hellomag) July 10, 2022
Austin, who starred in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks for almost three years, revealed how she and Ward decided on their son's name after being unprepared for naming a boy.
She said: "There was one name I had heard that I had liked, which was Reign, and Shayne loves anything medieval."
Ward added: "As soon as she suggested it, I thought it was nice.
"My middle name is Thomas and Austin is after Sophie's father.
"I thought that Reign Thomas Austin Ward sounded really good and it just fitted him."
Austin conceived Reign naturally following failed attempts at IVF.
"I can't believe we have got one of each," said her fiancé Ward.
"We are so blessed with this journey that we've been on - after we did IVF, this all happened naturally.
"I wasn't fussed if it was a boy or girl, I just knew I had to have another child.
"I was over the moon that I was a dad again."
Source: Press Association
