Julia Bradbury: baby is a 'wonderful surprise'

Walking celebrity Julia Bradbury has announced she is expecting her first child.

The 40-year-old presenter of BBC’s Countryfile, who also boosted the Lake District’s popularity with her Wainwright’s Walks series, described the news as a ‘wonderful surprise’ for her and her 52-year-old partner Gerard Cunningham.

Ms Bradbury has endometriosis, in which uterus-type cells grow in other areas of the body, and which in many women leads to infertility.

The baby is due in August.

The couple have not discovered their sex of the child, but said the pregnancy felt like ‘a bit of a miracle’.

Tweeting on Twitter, Julia said: “Yes, Bradders has bump! Have to look after it now,” while thanking well-wishers for their messages.

Dublin-born Ms Bradbury is president of the Ramblers and attributes much of her love of the countryside to her childhood walking in the Peak District with her father, a ‘Derbyshire lad’, according to Ms Bradbury. Her Wainwright’s Walks series was followed by a similar set of broadcasts on his Coast to Coast Walk.

She has also appeared on television tackling the Very Severe climbing route up the Old Man of Stoer, a 60m-high stack of sandstone off the Sutherland coast.