'Our world is forever changed': 'DWTS' stars Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy welcome their first child
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy are now a family of three. The 'Dancing with the Stars' couple announced the birth of their son, their first child together, on Wednesday, January 11 with a cute black-and-white photo on Instagram.
The picture showed the infant clutching his mother's thumb in the photo as Chmerkovskiy, 36, held both of their hands in his own. "Our world is forever changed 1.10.2023," the 'DWTS' pros captioned the photo. They did not reveal their baby's name yet.
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The couple's friends and family congratulated the couple. Fellow 'DWTS' dancers Witney Carson, Emma Slater, Lindsay Arnold, Sharna Burgess and Cheryl Burke who congratulated them. Chmerkovskiy's brother, Maksim, also left four red heart emojis, celebrating the new addition to the family.
Johnson, 28, exclusively discussed baby names with People in July 2022, when they first revealed their pregnancy to their followers. The pair had already decided on names for their children long before the professional dancer became pregnant with their first child. "We actually have had a boy and a girl name picked out for three years now. Val actually picked out the name for our boy, so we have it," Johnson said at the time.
However, Johnson acknowledged that she might change her mind when her baby was born. "I'm a visual person for sure. And so I have this weird thing where I don't want to be 100 percent set on it, even though we both love it. I really want to see him first before we make that decision. So far we have one that I'm pretty set on, so who knows, it might switch the day of," she explained
Johnson also spoke about her path to motherhood in an instagram post. "Our journey getting to this point wasn’t an easy one," she said, adding, "I remember watching people share these videos and aching because I wished so badly I could experience that joy. After two years of infertility, and hundreds of negative tests after negative tests, it was heart wrenching at times to stay optimistic and made me question whether I would ever have this opportunity."
"I will go into more depth about our fertility journey a little later on, but if any of you out there are struggling to get pregnant, suffering from infertility, or mourning a pregnancy loss… don’t lose HOPE. It may not happen on your timeline and the journey may rip your heart open at times, but don’t give up on yourself and your precious baby! It will happen," Johnson said.