Emmerdale star Chris Bisson revealed how his partner gave him the best 40th birthday present – telling him they were going to have a daughter.

The actor, who plays Jai Sharma in the rural soap, already has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, Harry, with his long-term girlfriend Rowena Finn. He turned 40 on July 21.

Chris Bisson
(Yui Mok/PA)

He told Hello! Magazine: “It was the best birthday present ever.

“For the first time I saw our baby’s face and she was sleeping with her little hand behind her head, just like Harry and I do.

“When she said, ‘You’ve got a little pink one,’ we were ecstatic. I’d hoped, deep down, that our second child would be a girl and my wish came true.”

Chris Bisson
(Ian West/PA)

The star, who has also appeared in Coronation Street and Shameless, said he was happy to contribute to the mini-baby boom on his current show.

He said: “Everyone quipped that there must be something in the water at Emmerdale because my co-stars Charley Webb and Matthew Wolfenden are also expecting their second baby around the same time as us.

“It’s certainly true that there has been a bit of a baby boom at Emmerdale recently. Natalie Anderson gave birth to her son Freddie a few months before we had Harry.”