Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan’s relationship history (Pictures: Getty / Instagram / Michelle Keegan)
Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan have recently announced that they are expecting their first child together after nine years of marriage.
The couple took to social media to announce with a pregnancy photoshoot with the caption: ‘2025 is going to be a special one for us… 👶🏻.’
In the photo, taken at sunset on a beach, Michelle is cradling her bump while wearing a two-piece white set as her husband faces her while walking towards her on the sand, with his back to the camera.
The post was quickly met with a flood of supportive comments from family, friends and fans offering their congratulations to the couple.
The former Coronation Street star and former TOWIE star’s announcement may have led many to wonder when the pair started dating, and how they’ve been married for.
Let’s take a look.
The couple shared the news on social media on December 29 (Picture: Michelle Keegan/ Instagram)
How did Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright meet?
Mark and Michelle have been together since December 2012.
The couple reportedly met backstage at The X Factor and subsequently bumped into each other at numerous other events.
‘I chased her for a while,’ Mark revealed on the Private Parts podcast hosted by Jamie Laing. ‘Basically she gave me the elbow for about a year and then finally I got my way, after a lot of work.’
‘People were suspecting things but we genuinely wasn’t [dating],” he added. ‘And then about literally a year later of us bumping into each other I finally sort of asked her out and it went from there.’
The couple kept their relationship under wraps until they appeared as a couple for the first time at the 2013 Soap Awards.
The couple attended the British Soap Awards at Media City on May 18, 2013 (Picture: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)
The couple has been together for 12 years (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
When did Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan get married?
The pair got engaged in September 2013 just nine months after they began dating. On 24 May, 2015, they were married.
At the time he told The Mirror: I’ve got now, for the first time in my life, what I’ve always wanted and what every boy dreams of – affection in a relationship, love, best friend, a girl I fancy… everything rolled into one.’
They married on May 24, 2015, at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmonds before celebrating at a reception on the grounds of the Tudor mansion Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.
Have the couple spoken about having a family before?
After being married for nearly a decade, the couple has constantly been asked about when they wanted to start a family. Michelle told Women’s Health in 2018 that while she was too busy at that time she had ‘always been broody’.
‘I love kids, and I want four, so hopefully in the near future,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Mark once told The Sun their schedules had got in the way of their plans.
‘We say we’re going to try [for a baby] every year but something comes up with work,’ he said.
Michelle also said that speculation over the years has been difficult. ‘People don’t know if we’re trying. They don’t know the background of what’s happening,’ she told The Mirror.
‘In this day and age, you shouldn’t be asking questions like that. I’m asked purely because I’m a woman.
‘But I’m immune to it now – it’s like a reaction, and as soon as I hear it I brush it off as it’s no one else’s business.’
The couple has both had busy careers (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Mark and Michelle are currently in Italy (Picture: Michelle Keegan/Instagram)
Lauren Goodger and Mark Wright were together for 11 years (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Before he got with Michelle, Mark was in an 11-year relationship with his TOWIE co-star Lauren Goodger.
They were engaged for a short time in 2011 but that ended after rumours emerged that Lauren had been unfaithful.
Lauren denied these claims.
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