Hollyoaks actress Jessica Fox has revealed she's expecting her first child with her husband Nicholas Willes.
Taking to Instagram, she told fans: "This week has been baby loss awareness week. So it seemed a good (and bad) time to share our story at the end of such an important and heartbreaking campaign and to show our support to all those who have been or are going through a similar journey.
"Trigger warning: Trying to conceive and conceiving after loss. Please make use of the mute or unfollow button if any of this is too much for you.
"Out of difficulties, grow miracles. Due spring 2023."
Jessica, who plays Nancy Hayton in the Channel 4 soap, has been inundated with messages of congratulations from her co-stars.
The star snuggled up to Nicholas in the Instagram snaps along with a series of baby scans.
The pair looked over the moon as they wore matching hats with the words 'mum' and 'dad' written on them.
Jessica has opened up about her struggles when it comes to pregnancy in the past.
She said: "Nick and I have been on a rocky road to get to this point. Miscarriage is awful, there is no other word for it. It robs you of the future you had planned, your faith in your body, it's isolating, lonely, frightening and nobody seems to talk about it. It's incredibly painful, it's pass out in your bathroom painful.
"It takes away the joy and excitement when and if you choose (and are able) to get pregnant again. It's replaced by anxiety, stress and more fear than I ever could have imaged.
"Nick and I lost two babies in 2021. Both losses were at the end of the first trimester and completely heartbreaking."
The actress also explained how hard she found it when her Hollyoaks character became pregnant, calling it a 'cruel twist of fate'.
Jessica continued: "'In a cruel twist of fate, when I got pregnant the second time, the character I play on Hollyoaks was pregnant too. On Twitter and Instagram I would see comments that I must be pregnant in real life. I looked pregnant almost straight away and I had started to put on weight.
"I started to show at work, I felt very smug that I'd have the most realistic baby bump ever. Maybe my actual baby could play my child on screen? The wardrobe department, who are the kindest people on earth, were the only ones who knew I was expecting.
"Then I lost the baby. On the Friday, I had a real bump, on the Monday I was putting on a fake one. It was every bit as horrific as it sounds. I tried to keep it a secret and get on with it. Sharing this on social media is not something I ever expected to do."
She said she will be getting help from the 'miscarriage clinic' to ensure her third pregnancy continues safely.
