Michelle Dockery has revealed she is pregnant with her first child as she debuted her growing baby bump on the red carpet at Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere in London's Leicester Square on Wednesday night.
The actress, 43, joined her husband, film producer Jasper Waller-Bridge, 37, as they announced their happy news.
Michelle arrived in a powder blue off-the-shoulder ballgown with a fitted bodice as she showed off her bump.
She has portrayed fan-favourite Lady Mary Crawley since the period drama debuted on ITV in 2010.
Stars gathered to celebrate the finale of beloved Downton Abbey, after an incredible 15 years of the TV series and a trilogy of movies.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which releases September 12, is set in 1930, some 18 years after the first episode.
It follows the Crawley family in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash and Lady Mary’s scandalous divorce.
Michelle married Jasper in 2023 in a romantic ceremony which was attended by her Downton Abbey co-stars.
The star was left heartbroken in 2015 when her fiancé, Irish publicist John Dineen, died following a 15-month battle against a rare form of cancer aged 34.
The couple met in 2013 and he proposed just under two years later but the pair never made it down the aisle. However, in a rare interview in 2017 Michelle told how she still considered herself to be a widow.
The Mail on Sunday first revealed that Michelle had found love for the first time following his passing after they met through mutual friends in 2019 and soon after they spent time together at the Rome film festival.
Michelle was understood to be friends with her new husband's older sister, and the two stars crossed paths when they both spent time in Los Angeles over the summer.
In January 2022 she and Jasper announced they were to marry in an announcement in The Times newspaper.
It read: 'The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King's Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.'
Michelle, who grew up in Romford, Essex, is the daughter of Lorraine, a care home assistant from Stepney, East London and Michael Dockery, a surveyor from Athlone, Ireland.
Jasper was born and raised in West London by his mother Teresa and father Michael, now married to the designer Rosemary Goodenough.
Michelle has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Off screen, Michelle keeps her private life out of the publicly eye, with the actress not appearing to have active social media accounts.
Michelle joined her co-stars Joanne Froggatt, Laura Carmichael and Joely Richardson, who all cut elegant figures in dazzling ball gowns.
Joanne Froggatt, 45, who played Anna Bates in the in the global phenomenon, slipped into a racy cut-out gown.
Joely, who stars as Lady Petersfield in the movie, pulled out all the stops in a glamorous red satin gown.
The 60-year-old British actress showcased her ageless looks as she made her jaw-dropping red carpet arrival.
Downton Abbey favourite Laura, 39, slipped into a quirky black and white lace gown as she joined her partner Michael C Fox.
Laura, who plays Lady Edith, appeared in high spirits despite the emotional end of an era.
Elsewhere, Hugh Bonneville, who plays Robert Crawley, cosied up to his vegan influencer girlfriend Heidi Kadlecova as they made a joint appearance.
Raquel Cassidy, 57, who played the role of Phyllis Baxter in the television series Downton Abbey, dazzled in a glitzy gold gown.
Dominic West, 55, also made an appearance, after starring as Guy Dexter in the 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Downton Abbey onscreen couple Phyllis Logan and Jim Carter posed arm in arm on the carpet.
Meanwhile, Author and Content Creator Lydia Millen attended the premiere with her husband Ali Gordon.
Strictly Come Dancing's Nadiya Bychkova put on a very leggy display in a thigh-high split white gown.
In the latest saga set in the 1930s Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, finds herself in ‘a public scandal’ as a divorcee and is forced out of social occasions in London because of her marital status.
It puts into question her eligibility to inherit the Downton Abbey estate from her father Lord Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville, who faces a dilemma on whether she is fit to run the place amid the public scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the late Dame Maggie Smith, who died last September, is paid tribute to in her character as the Dowager Countess of Grantham and it will be the first Downton series or motion picture she has not acted in.
Elsewhere, the family faces financial trouble as the household ‘grapples with the threat of social disgrace’.
As ever, the Crawleys must embrace change with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.
It comes as creator of Downton Abbey has claimed that British people have a 'curious double standard' of hating the rich but still wanting to be rich themselves.
Julian Fellowes criticised attitudes towards money, wealth and success in the UK in comparison to the United States.
He said in an interview with the Radio Times he thinks it is 'ungenerous' not to admire people who have done well for themselves.
The Tory peer explained: 'Britain has this curious double standard of hating the rich and hating anyone who has been very successful, and yet wanting it. I don't get it. It seems to me ungenerous not to admire people who have done very well.'
He added: 'Even when I was a struggling actor – which I can tell you is not the easiest of existences – if I met someone who'd had success and become a movie star, I'd think, "Good luck to them".'
Lord Fellowes made the comments ahead of the release of the grand finale of Downton Abbey - which is coming to an end after 15 years on our screens.
The beloved series depicts the struggles of the aristocratic Crawley family as they grapple with financial troubles and social disgrace.
The creator of Downton Abbey has claimed that British people have a 'curious double standard' of hating the rich but still wanting to be rich themselves.
