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Aisling Bea announces pregnancy by poking fun at Paul Rudd’s youthful looks

‘This time, it’s not a joke about bread,’ the comedian said alongside a photo showing off her baby bump

Lydia Spencer-Elliott
Tuesday 04 June 2024 09:21 BST
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This Way Up Season 2 trailer

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Aisling Bea has announced she’s pregnant with her first child with partner Jack Freeman.

The comedian, 40, shared the news on social media with a series of photos showing off her baby bump at the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend in Kansas City on Monday (3 June).

Bea and fellow comedian Seth Herzog posed with smiley faces drawn on their stomachs while hugging Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and NFL star, Travis Kelce.

Writing on Instagram, Bea announced the news of her pregnancy by poking fun at Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd’s youthful looks. She starred as Rudd’s wife in the 2019 Netflix series Living With Yourself.

“Dignity intact. Got pregnant so I could try and put something beside Paul Rudd’s face to make him look older,” she said.

The comedian then warned her followers: “If you use sharpie pen on your skin, it will be there for about two days. Just if you are weighing up what a commitment to an idea is worth. Gentle dermatitis is the answer.”

Clarifying she wasn’t just bloated in the photos, Bea later added in the caption: “To save myself admin. Yes I am pregnant. This time it’s not a joke about bread.”

The This Way Up star’s comment section was filled with messages of support and well wishes: “Aaah congratulations,” wrote Bridgerton actor Nicola Coughlan.

“Let’s go baby momma you gonna have such a cool future,” added the X Factor pop duo Jedward.

Bea has been publicly dating her partner Freeman for almost two years. The composer and producer is a member of the dance band Jagwar Ma. He also began touring as a bassist with Foals in 2020.

The couple’s pregnancy announcement follows after Bea previously admitted that she struggled to film sex scenes with fellow comedian Romesh Ranganathan in their new series Avoidance.

Opening up about her relationship with Ranganathan, 46, Bea explained that their 15-year friendship made shooting intimate scenes “totally harder”.

“We’ve been friends for about 15 years, but this is the second series of his show that he wrote and it’s all about a man going through a divorce and then in comes my character in series two – sparks fly perhaps, sure,” she said.

Bea went on to say that she found the scenes so difficult that she feared she would look like a bad kisser on screen.

“The two of us had one scene where we had to kiss for the first time for as long as Jessica Knappett, who is an amazing actress, came in the back and we’d split our heads apart and Jess would be there,” she said.

“It took longer for her to open the door than we thought! I knew I was doing bad kissing.

“When they finally called ‘cut’. I said ‘You’re not going to tell Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster and all the lads about us kissing are you?’”

The second season of Avoidance was released on BBC in April.

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