Emily Atack has shared a rare insight into her and partner Alex Garner’s surprise pregnancy, five months after welcoming baby son Barney.
The Rivals actress, 34, revealed the couple discovered the news during their first ever holiday together in Italy last year and described it as the ‘most perfect day’ of her life.
Emily rarely comments on her private life but recalled how on their last day in Palmero the lovebirds were discussing future plans for a family, when she realised she had in fact missed her period.
She told The Times: ‘[Alistair] joked, “Let’s buy a pregnancy test then”’ We did and I was pregnant. It was the happiest, most perfect day of my life. Not long afterwards, he packed all his stuff in a van in Manchester where he lived and arrived at my house’.
Emily explained she and Alex soon bought a property together and the day after they finished unpacking, their son was born.
Emily Atack has shared rare insight into her and partner Alex Garner’s surprise pregnancy, five months after welcoming baby son Barney
The Rivals actress revealed the couple discovered the news during their first ever holiday together in Italy last year and described it as the ‘most perfect day’ of her life
Emily rarely comments on her private life but recalled how on their last day in Palmero the lovebirds were discussing future family plans, when she realised she had missed her period
She went on to explain how the hunky scientist is so proud of her career, something she has never experienced in a relationship, and admitted he eagerly cuts out articles about her from newspapers and magazines to keep.
Gushing over Alex, Emily also teased wedding plans: ‘I know Al will look after me and Barney. I know he will be the best father and the best husband eventually. I am happier than I ever thought I could be’.
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In another candid admission, the actress revealed how, fresh from filming Disney+’s smash hit Rivals, she supported her partner at his dying father’s beside, and said the tragedy brought them closer as a couple.
‘We were together at the deathbed and then afterwards we left the room and hugged. We held each other for about 20 minutes and we just knew. There was history, but in that moment something clarified. “This was love. This was real”‘.
Emily previously told HELLO! magazine that she felt as if she has ‘won the lottery’ with their baby son Barney, and added that she couldn’t have gone through the ‘difficult labour’ with anyone but Alex.
She told the publication: ‘I couldn’t ask for a better partner and Al is the only person on this earth that I could have done this with.
‘It was a very difficult birth and after 12 hours of labour, I ended up having an emergency caesarean, but he was so calm.’
The former Inbetweeners star also described Alistair as her ‘literal rock’ and can not picture her life with anyone else.
Gushing over her partner, Emily also teased wedding plans: ‘I know Al will look after me and Barney. I know he will be the best father and the best husband eventually’
In another candid admission, the actress revealed how she supported her partner at his dying father’s beside, and said the tragedy brought them closer as a couple
She added: ‘All the cliches of life become true when you fall in love and have a baby. He’s my rock, but he really, literally, is my rock; I couldn’t do life with anyone else but him.’
Emily had known Alistair for more than 30 years by the time they struck up a relationship, and revealed that he is actually her auntie’s stepson.
Writing in her 2019 autobiography Are We There Yet?, Emily gave clues as to why she’s ended up in a relationship with Alistair, 38, because her cousins ‘understand each other on a deep level.’
She says: ‘Cousins are the best invention since the Game Boy. They are basically 50 per cent sibling, 50 per cent mate. You look the same but different…
‘You understand each other on a deep, deep, level and you have a smidgen more social etiquette towards them than your brother or sister…
‘It makes me sad for my friends who don’t have that relationship with their cousins, because mine were the best friends I ever had. They are still my best friends to this day.’
Emily had known Alistair for more than 30 years by the time they struck up a relationship, and it was later revealed that he is her auntie’s stepson (pictured on Loose Women in Oct 2024)
Emily previously called her cousins ‘the best invention since the Game Boy’ and ’50 per cent sibling, 50 per cent mate’ before it was revealed she was expecting a baby with her auntie’s stepson (pictured with Alistair)
Emily has a large number of cousins courtesy of the sprawling families of both her parents, actress Kate and singer father Keith Atack, who split in 2007.
Alistair hails from her mother’s side, being the stepson of Kate’s sister Jane who married his now late father Stephen Garner.
The former Celebrity Juice star had kept fans up to date with the ups and downs of her pregnancy and showcased her huge baby bump while counting down the days until she gave birth.
But when the baby boy did make an appearance, she gushed that ‘all of her dreams had come true’ with the new arrival.
She wrote on Instagram: ‘We have a beautiful son. Barney James Garner. All my dreams have come true.’