Gladiators star Steel and wife Samantha welcome baby boy
Gladiators star Steel, whose real name is Zack George, has welcomed a baby boy with his wife Samantha just 14 months after the death of their premature son Leo. The couple shared the news on Instagram, posting a picture of themselves with their newborn.
In the caption, Zack wrote: 'You will heal us more than you will ever know. We love you so much… Our baby boy.'
Background of Leo's death
Last year, Zack revealed that their son Leo had been born prematurely at 23 weeks and died after being cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit. He explained that Leo had three blood transfusions, collapsed lungs, a grade one and two bleed on his brain, and a hole in his heart. At the time of his death, the BBC star said he 'wishes he could have done more' to help him.
Couple's journey to another baby
In August last year, Samantha told The Mirror that she and Zack, who also have a three-year-old daughter named Ivy, had started trying for another baby to fill 'the void' left by Leo's death. She said: 'I love Ivy so much I want to give her a friend for life, we've been given the OK to try again when we're ready… It's been a really short time, but I need to fill that void, we want another baby, another little boy, but we both say, "Whatever Leo decides to give us", people say you'll never replace Leo, but I do feel my next baby will be a big part of him.'
Funeral and tribute to Leo
In May last year, the family laid Leo to rest at a funeral service and shared a picture of the floral arrangements on social media. Zack read a speech at the service, which he later shared online. The speech read in part: 'The hardest speech I've ever had to read. You came into this world early, tiny and brave, with a heart that beat like thunder. Thirteen days. That's all we had. But in that time, you taught us more about love, and courage, than most ever will.'
He continued: 'We called you Leo, our lion, not for how loud you roared, but for how hard you fought to stay. You knew our voices, you knew our touch, the warmth of our hearts pressed against yours. You were held, you were known and you were loved. And though the world only had a brief chance to meet you, you changed it and you changed us. Now that you rest, we still carry you— in every quiet moment, in the breath between tears, in the space you filled just by being here. Our son, our lion— you will always matter. You will always be ours. Rest easy our little boy.'
