Alex Reid and fiancée Nikki Manashe exclusively reveal gender of baby following seven-year fertility battle

Alex Reid and Nikki Manashe have revealed the gender of their baby exclusively to OK! Online.

The 45-year-old cage fighter and his fiancée Nikki, 36, described in an emotional interview how finding out their baby’s gender was “so surreal” following a seven-year IVF fertility battle.

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And now, in a raw and honest chat – exclusively for OK! VIP Club members – the couple, who have tragically suffered six miscarriages, excitedly revealed their baby’s gender by popping a ballon filled with coloured confetti to indicate a boy or a girl.

The IVF blogger said: “So we are in the park and we are about to reveal, all four of us, including the bump – the sex of the baby!”

“I have got my scissors but we are actually going to use Lola our Chihuahua!”

In the clip Alex crouches on the ground alongside Lola and holds a black balloon as Nikki cheers: “Go on Lola!”

The exclusive video then shows Alex use scissors to pop the balloon which contained the coloured confetti.

In the clip, which you can watch at the top of this page, Alex popped the balloon which revealed a shower of pink confetti for a baby girl.

The parents-to-be found out they were having a girl at a 16-week scan in order to “lift their spirits” after the couple were originally having twins but sadly lost one baby in December.

Nikki said: “I have always loved little girls and I was so happy for a little mini-me as well so I was really, really happy.

“Honestly, hand on my heart, I genuinely thought I knew the sex and I was 90 per cent adamant that it was a boy and when they told us it was a girl I was like: “What?!”

“I kind of wanted a boy for Alex more than me as it is something new for both of us. He already has a daughter so, for me, I wanted to share something special for us together.”

She added: “I was more than happy to see two arms, two legs, a healthy heart and brain and everything else but I am ecstatic it is a little girl.”

Nikki, who is 21 weeks pregnant, has undergone 18 operations during her fertility journey, including the “really strange grieving process” of losing her other baby while still pregnant

“I still don’t believe that I am pregnant! It is really weird because I have waited so many years for this and we have been through so many miscarriages, so many cycles of IVF – I know that I am pregnant but I don’t feel like I am,” she said.

“I think it is a coping mechanism – I don’t think it will hit me until my baby is in my arms.”

And Alex, who has an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, said he is “so excited” to do “dad things” again and is looking forward to welcoming another “little lady” into the family.

He said: “I have got Lola, a baby Chihuahua girl, Mitsy, a Persian cat, and now three other girls including my older daughter and Nikki.

“I am extremely excited to have a healthy baby and I am looking forward to being a dad again. I am a little bit older now and maybe a bit more mature, a little bit wiser.

“I realise now how much happiness bringing new life into this world creates. I am really excited to do dad things and have someone that looks up to me and just loves me unconditionally.”

Last year, Nikki and Alex found out they had lost the other twin at a seven-and-a-half-week scan at Harley Street Fertility Clinic in London.

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The blogger, who had two embryos inserted into her womb, lost the baby due to a condition called vanishing twin syndrome which happens when the embryo disappears into the uterus.

Nikki, who described how she had dreamed of “two babies growing up together”, said she and Alex are still going through a grieving process but are “elated” at the thought of welcoming their little girl.

Speaking about her miscarriages, Nikki said: “This time it is different because yes I am grieving what could have been a boy and a girl but at the same time I have to be so grateful to God and to my doctor that I am pregnant."

Meanwhile Alex shared how he has only just started to get excited after the couple have endured immense loss and disappointment in their hope of becoming parents together.

He said: “I think it is a natural survival mechanism for someone that has had so much disappointment – you start to become a lot more reserved.

“It is only now seeing her bump and I am talking to her bump, well our little lady now, it is getting real.”

The mum-to-be also revealed the meaning behind the special name for their little girl after Nikki’s mum passed away when she was 24 while Alex’s mum Carol is in a care home battling dementia.

Nikki said: “We have three girl names. I have always said if I have a girl it has to have something to do with my mum.”

She also described how she “promised” Alex that the name would reference his dad Bob if they had a boy after he passed away from a terminal illness in 2015.

“Our baby girl will have a very special name because she will have both of her grandmas in her name in some way.”

Speaking about the birth, the blogger, who must isolate until 28 weeks due to the immune-suppressing nature of her medication, plans to give birth naturally at Barnet Hospital in North London.

And Alex will be a hands-on dad from the start with Nikki adding: “I want Alex to pull the baby out when it is the final push because I think it is more special that way as well as cutting the umbilical cord."

Nikki, who has 23,500 followers on her IVF Instagram account, described how she has been “bombarded with love” for her baby who is due on July 18 – the day before Alex’s birthday.

She ended: “This miracle baby when she comes is going to be overwhelmed with just so much love.”

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