Aston Merrygold confirms he is expecting his first child with girlfriend Sarah Richards

Aston Merrygold has revealed he is set to become a dad for the first time, as he confirmed that girlfriend Sarah Richards is pregnant.

The 29 year old took to Instagram to share a sweet image with his 198k followers, admitting that 'this secret was so hard to keep'.

'On May 29th 2017 we found out that our lives were going to change forever!' he exclaimed in the accompanying caption. 'This secret has been so hard to keep, but I'm so excited to finally be able to share the news with everybody that me and my beautiful lady @sarahlourichards are going to be parents!!!!!! 😃❤🌍😍 I'm NEVER speechless but words can't describe how I feel.'

In a sweet promise to his girlfriend of four years, Aston then went on to say: 'All I know is there's no feeling like it! Sar I promise to be the best daddy ever to our baby boy/girl. You are an amazing woman and going to be the greatest mum to our child! Thank you for continuously making me the happiest man ever! I love you❤ hurry up bump we can't wait to meet you'

Aston added that the pair are choosing not to find out the sex of their baby, and that Sarah is due to give birth in January next year.

The image - which showed himself and Sarah sat at a dining room table with at a third seat between them and a 'reserved' sign with a scan image of their unborn child, and blue and pink balloons behind them - garnered over 33k likes and over 1k comments.

The Strictly Come Dancing star, who is set to compete in the competition this year, included a cute little rhyme with the series of snaps which read 'Could be pink... could be blue... all we know is that we're due.'

He has since been inundated with messages of congratulations, with one fan saying: 'Tiny little Aston gonna be so cute!!❤😍' while another commented: 'Amazing news you'll be a brilliant daddy x💙💖'

Capital FM DJ and former bandmate Marvin Humes was one of the first to congratulate Aston and Sarah on their baby news, taking to Instagram and penning a tribute to his close pal.

He said: 'Over the moon for my brother and sister @AstonMerrygold & @SarahLouRichards on the incredible news that Baby Merrygold is cooking!

'Can't wait to be an Uncle again! So happy for you two the baby is gonna have a lot of energy boy!'

Mum-to-be Sarah also shared an announcement to her 20.7k followers, thanking people for all the congratulations.

The professional dancer captioned it simply with: ‘Thank you for all the love, u got us feeling like ... 💃🏼🕺🏽💃🏼🕺🏽💃🏼🕺🏽’