Thom Evans and Kelly Brook reveal there's a baby on the way

MODEL and actress Kelly Brook announced last night that she is expecting a baby girl with boyfriend Thom Evans, the former Scottish International rugby player.

The couple have been dating for just three months. It will be a first child for both of them.

Brook, 31, who rose to fame co-hosting Channel 4's Big Breakfast, announced the news on Twitter.

She said: "Thom and I are happy to announce we are expecting a baby girl.

"We are delighted XXXXX."

The happy news comes a little over a year since Thom, 25, who was known as "the pin-up of Scottish rugby" was almost paralysed after colliding with Welsh player Lee Byrne during his 10th appearance for Scotland at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The game in February 2010 was described as one of the "most dramatic and heart-breaking" Six Nations encounters to take place.

However, despite numerous operations the injury eventually forced Zimbabwe-born Thom to give up his career as a professional rugby player last July and he is now focusing on becoming an action-movie actor.

Thom's brother Max still plays for the Scottish national team and the brothers are cousins of radio DJ Chris Evans.

England rugby star Danny Cipriani, a former team-mate of Evans, who broke up with Brook in June last year after two years together, said he wished the couple all the best.

Cipriani who is now living in Australia playing for the Melbourne Rebels, said: "Kelly told me in January that she was expecting. I am really happy for her. She will make a great mum."

Evans played for the London Wasps with Cipriani from 2004 to 2006.

A source close to the couple said Brook had undergone her three-month scan and that both mother-to-be and baby were in good health.

Brook has been in Los Angeles since the beginning of January working on various modelling campaigns. The announcement about the pregnancy came after she recently posed nude for a French arthouse magazine. She also received 250,000 to appear naked in Playboy last year.

Evans, who posed for full-frontal nudity photographs for the Dieux du Stade 2010 calendar, joined his partner in Los Angeles where he has been taking acting classes.

Brook's profile has been rising in the US since her bikini-clad appearance in the successful schlock-horror Piranha: 3D last year.

However, rugby insiders say Evans, a former boyband member, has the necessary "chutzpah" to carve out a successful career in showbiz.

Evans was enroute to becoming a rising rugby star when he took time out to form Twenty 4 Se7en which toured as a support act with Westlife, McFly and Peter Andre in 2004.

"He was always giving the other rugby players a laugh with his singing.They used to tease him that he was too scared to get involved a tackle in case he damaged his good looks," a friend of Evans said.

"If anyone is going to get into acting it will be him. He did drama at school and has a good way with people. He got supportive phone calls from Sir Sean Connery when he was injured and ended up modelling."