Singer Shayne Ward has reflected on his surprise at welcoming his new-born son after being told he and his fiancee were expecting a baby girl.
Ward, 37, rose to fame after winning the second season of singing competition The X Factor and later went on to star in ITV soap Coronation Street.
Ward and his fiancee Sophie Austin welcomed their second child Reign on June 11. Speaking to Hello! magazine about the birth, Ward said: “For nine months you believe you 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.”
The couple also share a five-year-old daughter, Willow.
Speaking about Willow’s reaction to her new brother, Ward said: “We’ve let her come around him in her own time.”
Adding: “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.”
Austin, 38, 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.”
After conceiving Reign naturally following failed attempts at IVF, Ward also spoke of his delight at now having a family of four.
“I can’t believe we have got one of each,” he said.
“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.”
The full interview with Shayne Ward is available in Hello! magazine, on newsstands now.