Peaky Blinders star announces birth of her second child as she shares sweet snaps

Peaky Blinders star Charlene McKenna has surprised fans by announcing the birth of her second child. The Irish actress, who plays Laura McKee aka Captain Swing in the BBC series, kept her pregnancy a secret before sharing her happy news.

Sharing a series of sweet photos on Instagram, McKenna wrote: "It’s been a minute…. Been making movies and memories and Maggies."

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One photo showed McKenna with a baby bump while another showed her cradling her new bundle of joy.

McKenna is married to Ozark actor Adam Rothenberg and the couple are already parents to daughter Martha Josephine, who they welcomed in April 2024.

Sadly, McKenna lost her father just two weeks after welcoming her first child. The actress said at the time: "Martha was born in April and two weeks later I very, very suddenly lost my father, so I am both feet welded in the circle of life right now — the birth of my child and the loss of my father," she explained.

McKenna and Rothenberg met when they were cast together in BBC drama Ripper Street in 2012 and married during lockdown in 2021.

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Describing their first meeting on RTÉ Radio 1's The Ray D'Arcy Show, McKenna said: "As two actors, we had to meet up to talk about our upcoming scenes that week because it was the first week of shoot and blah, blah, blah.

"The director was like, 'Maybe you two should have a coffee and chat it out'. We went to Bewley's and we had a coffee - I can even remember where we were sitting. And I've very fond memories of Bewley's because of it."

Peaky Blinders' new season will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, while The Immortal Man is on Netflix.

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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.

After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.

Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.