'WAITING FOR OUR BABY TO ARRIVE IS JUST INCREDIBLE'

Hollyoaks star Nikki Sanderson and her actor partner Anthony Quinlan share the happy news of their pregnancy and excitement for a spring birth

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When soap star couple Nikki Sanderson and Anthony Quinlan got the positive pregnancy test result they'd both been dreaming of, they were hit by a whirlwind of mixed emotions.

While Nikki, 41, was "on cloud nine", she began to worry about the pregnancy potentially going wrong.

"I felt absolutely elated that we got this confirmation and that the baby was fine - the first time seeing the heartbeat on the scans was the most amazing, incredible feeling," she says. "But I also felt a lot of anxiety - just worrying that the baby was OK and if the journey for us was going to be OK. I was really excited and over the moon, but I also had a lot of worries."

Former Hollyoaks and Emmerdale star Anthony, 41, adds, "We were thrilled but kind of held back from getting too excited because we're aware of the troubles that can happen. You're in that protective mode where you want everything to be OK, but there can be difficulties, especially in the first trimester."

Nikki is due in the spring, but understandably declines to be too specific about dates in order to avoid unwanted stress when the time comes.

"I'm worried about the pressure of people being like, 'Has she had the baby yet?'" explains the star, who quit her role as Hollyoaks' Maxine Minniver last April. "But we're happy to say it's going to be a lovely little spring baby."

Recalling the moment she learned she was expecting, Nikki, who took the pregnancy test alongside Anthony at their home in North Manchester, says, "As soon as we saw that positive result, it was just amazing."

Her pregnancy came as an even greater surprise as there were no signs she was expecting and was already four to five weeks along.