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:

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

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.”