Zachary Levi is going to be a father for the first time!

The Shazam! The actor announced on Instagram on Friday that he is expecting his first baby with girlfriend Maggie Keating. In the post, Levi also shared a photo of an ultrasound scan of her baby as well as a picture of Keating hugging the actor on the beach.

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“I literally wanted to be a dad since I was a kid,” he wrote in the caption. “I have always felt this calling in my life. This wish in my heart. A strange feeling of incompleteness because I didn’t have that level of love and responsibility in my journey. That the best years of my life would come after finally being a father. But deep down I knew there were things in my life that needed to change before I was ready for the blessing of something so special and the responsibilities that come with it.”

Levi continued, “So last November I started making some changes in my life. Changes that ultimately led to me loving and valuing myself more. I prioritize my own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Lo and behold, things immediately began to change for the better.”

The feed The star further praised his girlfriend, writing, “And very quickly God brought a brilliant, honest, grounded and deep love into my life through the angelic form of @maggiekeating.” A wonderful woman on the same journey of self-discovery and love, ready to to enter a new and amazing chapter of life with me. So we did it.”

“We can’t wait for you all to meet our little Bambino,” Levi concluded the post, noting that he doesn’t know the baby’s gender yet.

“I’ll be over the moon either way,” he added. “Always accept potential baby names. Keep them original, but not TOO original. We don’t need them to be bullied more than their theater nerd dad.”

Levi’s announcement comes shortly after his previous one She loves me Broadway co-star Laura Benanti made this clear in a recent interview with the US television network This is a Gay Ass Podcast that she was never a big fan of the actor.

Benanti criticized this Spy Kids: Armageddon Star for his comments following the death of Gavin Creel. The Tony-winning actor died in September at age 48 after a brief battle with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma. However, Levi later suggested in an Instagram Live that Creel’s death was due to the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Using his memory for his political agenda and watching him try to make himself cry until he had a single tear that he didn’t wipe away,” Benanti responded. “I thought, ‘Fuck you forever’.”

The Hollywood Reporter I previously reached out to Levi’s representative for comment.

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