Kieron Richardson has become a father.
Kieron Richardson (c) Twitter
The 'Hollyoaks' star - who is known for portraying Ste Hay in the long-running early evening soap - took to his Twitter account on Friday (26.05.17) to announce he and his husband Carl Hyland welcomed their twins Chase and Phoebe, who were born via a surrogate mother, into the world on May 22 at 18:11 and 18:34, respectively.
Alongside a sweet photograph of the little one's hospital bands, the 31-year-old actor said: "Welcome Chase and phoebe rae x (sic)"
The new arrivals come just 10 months after Kieron revealed that the pair had been struggling to conceive a baby through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and were concerned they weren't going to ever have a family of their own.
He said at the time: "We were hoping to have a baby this year. Unfortunately, like anyone who is trying for a baby through IVF - whether they are gay couples or not - it is a lottery. The statistics when we first started it were a 70% success rate. We have tried it four times, with the same surrogate mum, and we have fallen into that 30% bracket of it not working. But we have not given up the fight and are still continuing. We are going to keep trying until it is successful."
The heartthrob took to Instagram over Christmas to reveal that they were expecting not one but two children in an adorable festive-themed video, which showed two "Baby on board" signs hung up on a Christmas tree, before revealing Kieron and Carl sat on the floor opening a present.
When they removed the wrapping, the gift was a large piece of card which read: "Twins coming 2017"
The caption on the video read: "Merry christmas to us thanks to the British surrogacy centre (sic)"
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