Russell Brand is expecting his third child with wife Laura Gallacher.

Russell Brand is expecting his third child with wife Laura Gallacher

Russell Brand is expecting his third child with wife Laura Gallacher

The ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ actor and comic, 48, who has daughters Mabel, six, and Peggy, four, with writer Laura, 36, shared the news they were adding to their brood during an appearance on Steven Bartlett’s ‘The Diary of a CEO’, with the host making the announcement on his behalf.

Steven, 30, told him: “You fell in love and you've got two children. You’ve got a third on the way, around the corner. That’s a very special love you have found.”

Former heroin addict Russell said about being a dad: “It taught me there is a lot more important in this world than me.

“There’s a lot more important stuff in this world then what I want, think or reckon.

“It taught me that love is real. It teaches you everything to become a father. All lessons are there.”

Russell then got tearful as he spoke about a “future he won't be a part of”, in an apparent reference to death.

He said: “Any old man, any old woman. My little girls, it’s just so beautiful.”

Russell, who was married to ‘I Kissed a Girl’ singer Katy Perry, 38, from 2010 to 2012 and who briefly dated Geri Halliwell, 50, married Laura in 2017 at an intimate service near their home in Henley-on-Thames.

Russell – who has been sober for 20 years – added on the podcast about giving up cocaine, heroin and alcohol: “It’s probably only by the time I got clean from crack, and heroin and alcohol, that I’d been having an anxiety attack for my entire life.

“My life has been defined my addiction, and addiction is in part a lack of connection, an attempt to synthesise the connection between self, other and god.

“My initial solution to feeling weak and disconnected and lonely and somehow silently brilliant was to try and become successful, was to try and become famous.

“Now that I’m a dad, you can’t be a father to anyone else before you’re a father to yourself, a sense that you are alright, you are enough, you are sufficient, and you’re going to be OK.

“I’ve been fortunate enough through crisis and despair to find myself connected to a group of other people the same as me, who cannot cope with reality unless they use drink or drugs, who provide me with a paradigm and a programme for moving forwards.

“I have to do quite a lot to not be crazy.

“Every day I get up, meditate, do yoga, green juice I attend a support group and then I feel OK.”