Former Emmerdale and Hollyoaks star, Anthony Quinlan, and his partner, Nikki Sanderson, herself formerly of Hollyoaks and Coronation Street, recently welcomed their beautiful little boy into the world.

They announced his birth on his original due date, with an adorable Instagram post, featuring a black and white image of their bundle of joy alongside ‘hello world’, with a caption informing their followers that he’d arrived a few days earlier than expected.

‘Happy due date little man,’ began the caption.

‘You blessed our lives a few days earlier than expected and filled our world with so much joy. Daddy and Mummy love you so much Son.’

Yesterday, Anthony took to Instagram to share another snap, this one of him carrying his son out of the hospital, alongside a video of the emotional moment.

‘The most special day!’ he began the caption. ‘The smallest passenger, carrying the biggest piece of our hearts. He has no idea yet… but he’s already made all our dreams come true!’

The comments section was flooded with sweet messages, including one from Nikki herself, reading: ‘The best Daddy’.

Anthony’s Emmerdale castmates were out in force, with Michael Parr, Anthony’s former on-screen brother saying: ‘Poppa Quinehh! You guys are gonna be amazing parents’ and Michelle Hardwick adding: ‘Just beautiful’. Matthew Wolfenden said: ‘Congratulations matey. Over the moon for you both’ and Jay Kontzle added: ‘Congratulations to you both’.

Nikki’s mum, Jude, said, in a beautiful comment: ‘A wonderful Daddy. So proud of his little boy. [Nikki] you are a fabulous Mummy and this little fella is a very lucky little boy. He is so loved’

Anthony and Nikki’s baby journey

Nikki and Anthony faced a difficult journey as they tried to conceive, one they’ve been incredibly open about.

‘We’ve had a lot of ups and downs in our journey to becoming parents, and it’s been really hard on us, you try to stay positive, but there are moments where it feels overwhelming,’ Nikki shared with OK!.

‘I froze my eggs in my late thirties with Anthony’s full support, just in case we faced any complications later down the line. When it wasn’t going the way we’d hoped, we spoke to the doctors about IVF. We had tests to see if there was a problem, but both of us were fit, healthy and had everything in working order.

Anthony said: ‘We were kind of resigned to the fact that we may need assistance via IVF. We wanted this so much and we were just hoping, hoping, hoping.’

‘Because we’d had a few times where it wasn’t the result we wanted, it was like, ‘Is this for real?” Nikki added. ‘We were on the list to have IVF and were patiently waiting for our turn, but by some wonderful miracle and blessing, we fell pregnant naturally!

‘Even when we found out, it took a while for it to sink in. Anthony and I were just at a loss for words because we weren’t expecting it.’

Anthony and Nikki are said to have been together since January 2022, with Anthony confirming their romance in March of that year, saying he was ‘really, really happy’.

‘I’ve always fancied her. She’s mega hot, right?’, he said at the time. ‘We’ve known each other for years. There were rumours we met at the gym, which we had a bit of a laugh about. I slid into the DMs and that was it. I was lucky enough to get a date and the rest is history.’

Nikki previously spoke about their desire to keep the finer details of the relationship out of the public eye: ‘ ‘You know what, we are very happy and we are quite private so I won’t talk too much about it. He’s such a wonderful guy and I’m very lucky.’

MORE: Coronation Street star implies more than one person may be dead

MORE: Coronation Street star engaged after partner of 8 years unexpectedly proposes

MORE: Jodie sinks to all time low in grim Coronation Street shock as David is shattered