Richard Herring announces he is to become a father again
Richard Herring has announced via his blog that he is to become a father again.
He and his wife, comedian and writer Catie Wilkins, are having a baby boy. The couple already have a young daughter, Phoebe, who was born in 2015.
Herring posted: "I was worried we didn't have enough to fill our time this year, so thank goodness I can finally reveal to you that we're having another baby in the autumn. We're having a boy one, so have completed the set."
He joked: "Nice to see male/female parity restored in the family. Imagine if it had been three women and one man - what kind of terrible panel show would that have made? It's never happened, so no one actually knows.
"I am trying to convince my wife that we should call him Booz. It's a solid biblical name. But we really must call him Booz of Catie to distinguish him from all the other Boozes who will be in his class."
Providing further details, he explained: "We were at the hospital for the twenty week scan. Last week on holiday I first felt the butterfly kicks through my wife's stomach making first contact with this new life form, but now we got to have a look at little Booz and assess his growth and health and focus in on his genitalia, which in any other circumstance would surely be deeply wrong and even in these circumstances seems a bit weird."
Speaking about the comparison with their last pregnancy, the stand-up said: "Phoebe at this stage had made us laugh by kicking and flailing around, given us any early indication of her exuberance. But Booz was much cooler and laid back. Literally so. He was resisting all of our attempts to make him turn around so that the medical professional could assess the growth of his spine. Catie had to roll around, jump up and down and go for a walk, but Booz (sorry that's Booz of Catie if you were getting confused) stayed where he was. Finally the woman doing the scan basically pushed him until he scooted up a bit and we could finish up the appointment. It was quite funny to see my wife put through this ridiculous pantomime in the name of medical science. All this equipment around us and ultimately the only recourse was to shove him until he had had enough."
Herring will turn 50 years-old in July. He concluded: "I have come to fatherhood relatively late and wasted a lot of my life pursuing lifestyles that whilst very enjoyable (when they weren't totally depressing) were ultimately self-defeating. Being a dad has been the best thing I have ever done. So having two kids must be twice as good, right?"
Herring is preparing his new stand-up show Oh Frig, I'm 50!, which he will perform at the Edinburgh Festival. Before then, he will record another series of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. The series will see him reuniting with Andrew Collins for a special episode (series line-up).
A picture of the scan and further details updates can be found on Herring's blog