Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed celebrate preborn baby

Young Hollywood power couple Ian Somerhalder (Lost, The Vampire Diaries) and Nikki Reed (The Twilight Saga, Sleepy Hollow) recently announced that they are expecting their first child. In a sweet post on Reed’s Instagram (May 4, 2017), they shared a letter written to their baby in the womb:

Hi Little One
I know you, but only because I feel you. How is it possible to love someone so much already? All I know for sure is it’s the strongest feeling I’ve ever felt. We’ve been sharing this body for quite some time, and we’ve already experienced so much together. We can’t wait to meet you…
Love
Your parents

Somerhalder also shared the beautiful maternity photograph with a grateful note:

To our friends, family, and rest of the world. In my 38 years on this earth I’ve never experienced anything more powerful and beautiful than this. I can’t think of anything more exciting than this next chapter and we wanted you to hear this from us first. This has been the most special time of our lives and we wanted to keep it between the three of us for as long as possible so we could enjoy this time with each other and our little one who is growing so fast…because that’s what they do, they grow so fast. Thank you for your kind energy.
Love,
Ian

In a 2010 MTV interview about her supporting role in Twilight Saga film Breaking Dawn, Reed said she wouldn’t extrapolate pro-life symbolism from her character’s storyline that involves thwarting an abortion, explaining “I try not to be super vocal and opinionated because in Hollywood that seems to only lead you in the wrong direction… I think that Rosalie just always wanted to be a mom… it’s about her need to be a mother.”

Somerhalder was raised Catholic, while Reed told The Independent, “My dad’s Jewish and my mum is Christian so I grew up with no religion. Just whatever religion I wanted.” The couple has been married for two years. Together, Reed and Somerhalder share a passion for animal welfare, health, environmental sustainability, and human rights. “If you can build this next generation to have the type of compassion for other living creatures, it’s going to span across a lot of societal issues that we’ve been having,” says Somerhalder in a video for the Humane Society.

“It’s a pretty crazy time and place to bring a child into this turbulent and insane world, but I really can’t wait to do it,” Somerhalder told Entertainment Tonight shortly after entering married life with Reed, who is nine years his junior, in 2015. “I really just love it.”