Former Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley has announced she is expecting her second child with husband Tom Pitfield.

The actress made the announcement in an interview with Hello! magazine and said she was “absolutely elated” and felt “so lucky”.

It was also revealed that the child would be a girl and that Catherine was 14 weeks into her pregnancy.

She added: “Tom was in bits when we found out we are having a little girl. He has suddenly gone all mushy. I'm sure she will have him wrapped around her little finger."

At first the 38-year-old didn’t even think she was pregnant, instead thinking that she was going through the menopause or her hormone imbalance had returned — a condition where the body fakes pregnancy.

"I took so many tests as I was convinced I [wasn't] actually pregnant, but in fact my body was just mimicking a pregnancy," she said.

"So this time, even when my stomach was a bit swollen, I just thought: 'Oh hormonal imbalances again'...

"I was having terrible insomnia, which is still with me. I was so hot at night and unable to control my temperature.

“I started to panic that perhaps I was perimenopausal. I know I would have been a bit young, but it does happen.

"It is not like morning sickness as you feel sick all day. It is the same thing Kate (Middleton) had, although I have not been as extreme as her. I was put on medication and that has been a godsend as I feel so much better."

Catherine and Tom welcomed their first child Alfie in 2015.