Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Joanne Peh and Qi Yuwu expecting second child

The couple's second child is due in May next year. The actress is secretly hoping for a girl, but thinks husband Qi Yuwu is secretly hoping for a boy

Actress Joanne Peh, who is married to actor Qi Yuwu, announced her second pregnancy on Instagram at around 12pm. Photo: Joanne Peh/Instagram

Actress Joanne Peh, who is married to actor Qi Yuwu, announced her second pregnancy on Instagram at around 12pm. Photo: Joanne Peh/Instagram

SINGAPORE — Joanne Peh is expecting her second child with actor husband Qi Yuwu. The actress, whose daughter turned one in August, announced today that she is three months pregnant and expected to deliver in May next year.

“I’m secretly hoping it’s a girl,” Peh said, giggling. “I think it will be nice for (our daughter) to have a younger sister, especially since their ages will be quite close. It’s nice to have someone to share secrets, a room, clothes and, in the future, makeup with. Maybe it’s because I don’t have sisters, so I yearn for one! When I see two sisters close in age, the way they interact makes me feel warm and fuzzy.”

That’s on top of the fact that “I won’t have to buy new clothes”, she quipped. What’s more, if the baby is another girl, she can apply the same child-rearing techniques, whereas if it’s a boy, “I’ll have to use a different way”.

And what does Qi think? “I think he secretly wants a boy,” she laughed. “He did mention that he thinks there are too many female hormones in the house — there’s me, our daughter and the nanny. So he hopes to have a guy to maybe do guy stuff with him — someone he can play rough with, I guess!”

Qi is currently in Beijing while Peh is here filming for the drama Dream Coder, which will air in February on Mediacorp TV Channel 8. Peh plans to give birth here in Singapore, like she did with her first child.

In a Mandarin text message via his manager, Qi said: “Neither Joanne and I are only children. After our daughter came along, we both wanted another child so that she could have a playmate. My main consideration was Joanne’s health. A year after giving birth, she has recovered very well and is back at work. Still, we didn’t expect she would become pregnant so soon. We are very happy and satisfied, and it doesn’t matter to us whether it’s a boy or girl.”

He added: “I just renewed my contract with Mediacorp as well as with its management arm, The Celebrity Agency. I feel at ease with them handling my acting career and I have faith in them. I will continue to act in productions in Singapore. And, with Joanne’s pregnancy, I will do my best to be by her side. Our daughter is also growing and is starting to talk and walk. She‘s very cute — I am increasingly unwilling to be apart from her. Thank you, everyone, for your concern.”

Although Peh was in good spirits when we spoke to her over the phone, she is admittedly finding her second pregnancy tougher.

“This time round, it’s a little bit harder,” she said. “During the first trimester, I was feeling nauseated at night, and I didn’t have much of an appetite. Every day at 5pm, I would start to dread dinner time because I knew that was when I would have no appetite and would want to puke, but would still have to eat because I needed energy for filming. Night scenes are hard because I don’t have much energy and all I want to do is just sleep off the nausea.”

But on the whole, it’s been okay, she said, “except for one day when I had to film for 18 hours straight, but that was unavoidable. And there’s this cough virus that’s going around — I was coughing really badly. I have to thank the crew for being very helpful.”

How many more children would she like to have? “It’s ‘the more the merrier’ for me,” she said. “I’ve always wanted four, but if you asked me why, I’d say I don’t know.”

To prepare for the expansion of their family, Peh said: “We’re looking to move to a bigger place. Where we live currently probably won’t be able to accommodate a toddler and a new born.”

Other than that, there is not much work to be done. “There’s a lot less reading up I have to do, because I did that for the first pregnancy,” she said, adding: “I hope to be working until the day I go into labour.”

Our burning question, though, is this: Since the couple have decided to keep their daughter’s name, image and identity secret, referring to her only as “Baby Qi”, what will Baby Qi Version 2.0’s nickname be?

“Version 2.0? That’s very cute!” she laughed. “We really haven’t thought about it. Now that you’ve reminded me, I think we’ll have to come up with a nickname or something. I don’t know — maybe you guys can come up with something funny.” Any suggestions, Joanne fans?

In any case, the couple aims to keep their children sheltered from the public eye “until they are a little bit older and can make certain decisions on their own, like whether to be on social media or not”.

She continued: “If (my daughter) decides that she wants to take part in a beauty pageant or kids’ modelling contest, by all means — we will be very supportive. But it should be something she wants to do herself, rather than because we force her.”

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.