Jazz singer Natalie Rushdie and her husband Zafar are expecting their first child together – a daughter, due in October – HELLO! can exclusively reveal. The baby girl will be the first grandchild for Zafar's famous father Sir Salman Rushdie, the esteemed novelist and Booker Prize winner who is now based in New York. "He's really over the moon and couldn't be happier for us. And so are we. It's super exciting," smiles Zafar, sharing beautiful images captured by the couple themselves with HELLO!.
WATCH: Natalie Rushdie and husband Zafar reveal their exciting baby news
They both hope to rope Salman in to help with homework when the time comes. "He just knows everything about everything so I really think, hopefully, he can give all of his knowledge to our child," says Natalie, who describes her father-in-law as the best in the world. The couple have kept their pregnancy news in their closest circle until now. "Well we haven't seen anyone to tell them face to face!" says the dad-to-be.
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The lockdown hasn't only affected their ability to toast the happy news with their nearest and dearest in person. Since their first scan, which took place just before the social distancing measures came into play, Zafar, 40, has been unable to accompany Natalie, 33, to her hospital appointments. "She's either Facetimed me in for a live 'broadcast' of the scan or videos it to show me afterwards," he explains – though he is hopeful that things may have changed in time for the birth. "Five months is a long time. The world has changed a lot in the last two months so… hopefully, things will be better than they are now. I would feel really, really disappointed not to be there."
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Natalie, who suffered from morning sickness from day one and lost a stone in weight, says, "Movies depict this idea that pregnancy is all wonderful and glowing but really, it's hard work… but throughout this pregnancy Zaf has been so calm and reassuring," she smiles of her husband, who she married in an extravagant, fairytale ceremony in New York in June 2016.
They are thrilled to be expecting a girl, who can inherit Natalie's wardrobe which encompasses an array of more than 150 dresses by designers including Dior, Prada, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Marchesa. "Natalie has a big wardrobe of big dresses, so if we didn't have a girl we'd be keeping having kids until there was a girl to take on the dress collection. So it takes a bit of pressure off!" says Zafar.
Read the full interview in HELLO! magazine out on Monday.
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