Gary Hollywood has welcomed a “rainbow baby” with his wife Cherylanne.
The couple sadly suffered a miscarriage last year and were informed of the loss at their 12-week scan.
They previously had their son Ollie four years ago and have now given him a brother.
Read more: Mrs. Brown's Boys star Dermot O'Neill thought he'd have to give up the show before getting surgery
Read more: Eilish O’Carroll on life with her partner Marian, coming out as gay and burying her siblings
Gary shared that their baby boy was born on 11 October at 8pm, weighing 7lb 4oz. They also named him Carter for a very special reason.
“When we found out we were pregnant again, it just felt like all our dreams came true,” he smiles,” Gary told OK!
“I found out we were expecting in February, the weekend after my birthday. Most people want a handbag or something like that as a present; I just wanted a baby,” Cherylanne said.
She opened up about what it was like when they found out they were expecting again.
“It was a mixture of nerves and excitement. After I miscarried, I said that we wouldn’t do it again, but that was just the process of healing,” Cherylanne said.
“When we saw that positive test in February, we didn’t want to get too excited, especially in the early days. It was a strange feeling and because we were so apprehensive about what could happen, we didn’t actually talk about it to each other. We went out for dinner one night and I just broke down crying – and then Gary did too.”
Gary added: “It turned out that both of us had been feeling the same way, but didn’t want to talk about the worries in case it took away from the excitement.”
They got their first son involved in choosing the name of the baby, with the actor sharing: “We went through the alphabet with Ollie, and when we got to “C”, he said “Carter”. We liked it right away – well, not Ollie’s full version which was “Carter Barter” [laughs]. And we decided on John for his middle name, which was after my dad who sadly passed away, as well as Cherylanne’s papa’s middle name.”
The couple decided on having a birth plan in place for Carter as Cherylanne’s experience delivering Ollie was “quite traumatic”.
She explained: “I only had gas and air that time, so this time I was adamant I was having an epidural. I was pretty naïve about Ollie’s birth and didn’t really research anything. For Carter, I decided I wanted a natural birth again but asked for all the pain relief possible [laughs].
“Even my birth notes had “early epidural” in capital letters. In the lead-up to the labour, I had some back pain but didn’t think anything of it. I got the car valeted, did the nursery run with Ollie, everything. But when it got to 6pm, I told Gary it felt like contractions and they were getting worse.
“I didn’t want to go to the hospital for them to send me home because I wasn’t far enough along, but at 7.15pm, it was too much. I headed in to get assessed and it turns out I was 7cm dilated.”
The former Mrs Brown's Boys added: “The nurse turned to me and said, “She’s too late for an epidural.” I said to just go with it and not mention it, because I knew it’d stress Cherylanne out even more.”
English (US) ·