Stan Walker and wife Lou Walker announce pregnancy on Christmas morning

Singer-songwriter Stan Walker and his wife Lou have announced they are expecting their first child together.

The 'Bigger' hitmaker, 31, revealed the exciting news via his Instagram on Christmas morning, alongside a sweet snap of the couple and Te Puuwairua, Stan's stepson, smiling at Lou's baby bump.

"Probably the hardest year for us... But soo thankful for everything we have & everything we have done... We are truly blessed through it all," Stan shared in an emotional post to his 272,000 followers.

"Ending the year with a new beginning... We can't wait to meet you, our pēpi.

"Meri Kirihimete from the Walkers."

In a similar post to her husband, Lou wished her followers a Meri Kirihimete.

"[I] was going to write a long post about our year because ohhhh my life it's been a year all right but we'll start with how we are ending [sic]," she wrote.

In September, Stan revealed he and Lou had married in an intimate, backyard ceremony for close friends and family the month prior, less than a year after the musician proposed in December 2020.

"Before being a singer, I dreamed of being a dad and a husband," Stan told the New Zealand Herald earlier this year.

"It's the most rewarding thing and the best thing I've ever achieved in my life, to inherit this beautiful boy [Te Puuwairua]. That's my son, that's my boy, he will always be the first of everything that I have. When we have more kids, he's the first. That's how we are as Māori. There's no step, half - that's my boy."

In September, Walker released his first ever te reo Māori album, the 12-song project Te Arohanui, in memory of his late grandmother - a "beautiful, staunch kuia". 

Walker will be touring New Zealand early next year.