‘Peaky Blinders’ actress Charlene McKenna has secretly had first baby
‘Peaky Blinders’ actress Charlene McKenna has secretly welcomed her first child with her husband Adam Rothenberg.
The Irishwomen, 40, famed for playing Laura McKee in the fifth and sixth series of the BBC gangster drama, has only now announced she gave birth to a daughter named Martha Josephine in March, who she had with her 49-year-old ‘Ripper Street’ actor partner.
She told Kay Sheehy on RTE Radio 1 about how she was busy with a “new production” and a “beautiful production” of her own: “'I think it’s an incredibly special and poignant and beautiful production, if I do say so myself.”
The actress also opened up about her family life as a new mother with her US-born actor husband Adam, who she married in 2021.
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She said: “I had a little baby, so I’ve been kind of out of the loop for a long time now.
“I’ve just been in nesting mode and enjoying my little girl. She’s just… she’s very special.”
Despite a string of high-profile TV roles including on ‘Ripper Street’ alongside her husband and as DS Niamh McGovern in the BBC’s ‘Bloodlands’, Charlene has admitted she lives with an “existential terror” her acting work will dry up.
She told The Sun: “I still live with the existential terror and dread it will go away.
“And everybody is like, '’Are you taking time off?’' and I am taking time going, ‘Don’t go away though’.
“You feel nervous taking time off because you’re like, ‘'Will that be it then?’ “You’re going, ‘I only wanted a few weeks lads, and it’s a year later. What’s the saying? ‘You don’t retire, the industry retires you’.”