Brian Dowling has given fans a cute update on his first few days of being a parent as he and his husband announced they have welcomed a baby girl.
The Big Brother star shared their daughter, who is named Blake Maria Rose Dowling Gourounlian, was born on September 1.
The tot is the first child for 44-year-old Brian and his Dancing with the Stars judge husband Arthur Gourounlian, 42.
They chose the name Blake because they both liked names that could be used for a boy or a girl, while Maria and Rose are tributes to Brian and Arthur's mothers.
Posting a video on social media after their first couple of nights with baby Blake, Brian looked tired as any new parent would.
Speaking from bed, he told his 205,000 followers: “Good morning everyone - it’s like a French class here in the bed this morning – dishevelled, tired, overwhelmed.”
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Rubbing his eyes, the Irish TV presenter continued: “It’s like nothing really prepares you for parenthood, and it’s just as well.”
Gushing about the new addition to the family, he went on to call Blake the “perfect baby”.
He said: “She is beautiful. Her dark, shiny hair – her perfect little lips.”
“She doesn’t like when you take the bottle out. She’s like me with the cocktails – keep them coming,” Brian joked.
The Big Brother winner added: “I actually can’t believe she’s here. It’s so weird, especially because we were convinced we were having a baby boy.”
Brian and Arthur revealed baby Blake was born via surrogate and carried by Brian’s younger sister Aoife.
Their parenting journey was made possible by an unknown egg donor, meaning Aoife was the incubator rather than a biological parent.
Praising his “phenomenal” sister, Brian said everyone is now safely out of hospital and Aoife was being looked after by his sisters back in Ireland.
“We are on the phone to her the whole time. She is in flying form – and Aoife has just been phenomenal through all of this.”
Telling fans his plan for the day, he added: “I’m going to be one of those parents when baby sleeps, Daddy sleeps.
“I’m now going to get up, wash the hair, wash the face, ready for the next feed - we have this!”
Brian, who shot to fame when he won the second series of Big Brother back in 2001, revealed in June that Aoife was carrying the baby, and that he always wanted to be a dad.
The former Big Brother presenter recalled the moment Aoife made the generous offer in 2020 while a guest on the Made by Mammas podcast.
He shared: “In 2020 at Christmas, Aoife was like, 'I'm definitely interested in doing this for you.’
“We kind of thought: 'Oh my god, maybe this is something we really need to think about,' I said to Arthur, 'I'm 44 this year and I said by the age of 45 I just feel I'm going to be too old' –Arthur's two years younger than me."
He went on: "She's single, she's 32, so you know, so experiencing that whole thing would be an amazing feeling. But then not having the responsibility.
"So, the way it happened it was so organic, and it was Aoife that initiated these conversations and that was very reassuring for us."
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