Former Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley has revealed the name of her baby daughter weeks after giving birth to her second child - and it's a classic. The actress, who played Eva Price in the ITV soap from 2011 to 2018, also shared the first picture of herself with her baby girl.
The Stockport-born star announced the joyous news that she was expecting her second child with husband Tom Pitfield back in October and revealed back in April that the couple, who are also parents to seven-year-old son Alfie, had welcomed their new bundle of joy into the world.
Taking to Instagram, the mum-of-two shared a black and white image of the newborn's tiny legs and feet and said: "We are so happy to announce that our beautiful daughter has arrived," she said. "We are grateful beyond words and feel overjoyed that our family is complete."
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The actress, who went on to play Karen Norris in the sitcom Scarborough after Corrie, has now revealed that she and Tom named their newborn daughter Iris Ella. The 38-year-old told Hello! magazine that she played a character called Iris Moss in the BBC drama Lilies in 2007 and she had "loved it ever since".
Their daughter’s middle name Ella is a tribute to Pitfield’s late grandmother. Cath also shared the first image of her baby girl as part of a family photoshoot with the magazine at her home in Cheshire alongside her husband and son Alfie. She said: "These first few weeks have been so precious. I’ve been living my best life. Iris will find her own way and decide what she likes. But for now, I’m going with the pink. I am a very girlie girl."
The baby was born on April 19 at St Mary’s in Manchester weighing 8lb. Tyldesley revealed she was two weeks overdue and so had to be induced. Cath, who used hypnobirthing and meditation music, explained that it remained a slow progress at the hospital until suddenly she felt the baby arriving and then she was born "within minutes".
She added: "Even though it was super-fast and we were both in complete shock, it was a beautiful birth." Cath also said she feels more relaxed with her second child than they did with Alfie, noting: “With our first baby, we didn’t have a Scooby-Doo what we were doing and I think I tried to cope on my own.
"If you talk to other mums, it can really help." The former soap star also suffered from insomnia and hyperemesis gravidarum – severe nausea and vomiting – during her pregnancy. She said: “With no sleep, you just can’t function. I wasn’t socialising. Even when my friends said 'Let’s do a baby shower,' I said 'I can’t. I’ve not got it in me.'"
Catherine also shared one of the pictures from her Hello! shoot on Instagram. It showed the new mum in a floral dress cooing over her baby girl, who was dressed in a pink dress. "So… here she is," she shared alongside the pos. "We can't wait for you to meet our daughter. We are so in love . Grateful every single day."
And more pictures came flooding in for the now family of four. Gemma Atkinson said: "She’s beautiful!" Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas wrote: "A huge congratulations."
Helen Flanagan simply wrote: "Beautiful," as Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins commented: "Big congratulations!!! Gorgeous girl."
You can read the full article in Hello! magazine out now.
