Peta Murgatroyd Is Pregnant, Expecting Second Baby with Maks Chmerkovskiy: 'Best Blessing for Us'

"All natural, it happened," the Dancing with the Stars pro shares exclusively with PEOPLE after documenting her difficult fertility journey on social media

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Published on January 13, 2023 12:00 PM

Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy are going to be parents — again!

The professional dancers are expecting their second baby together, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. The exciting news comes after the couple opened up about their three miscarriages and months of Murgatroyd documenting her difficult fertility journey on social media.

"All natural, it happened," the 36-year-old tells PEOPLE. "I didn't even know I was pregnant for so long until I was really feeling sick. I danced through Dancing with the Stars with it. I started feeling weird, started feeling a little bit sick and a little bloated and I didn't want to test for weeks."

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After finally taking a test around her "six or seven-week" mark of conceiving, the Peta Jane Beauty founder was in shock over the results.

"I think it was the fastest positive I've ever seen in my life," Murgatroyd, who is almost 18 weeks along, says. "It just came up super quick and I was just shocked. It's been completely different from my past pregnancy. It wasn't like I jumped for joy and I shouted from the rooftops, 'Oh my God, I'm pregnant. Yay!' It was more like a, 'Okay, well let's see what happens because I've been through this four other times, and it hasn't worked.' So I was very skeptical. I didn't even tell Maks for a while."

Back in June, the couple sat down with PEOPLE to openly talk about their infertility journey. Murgatroyd also revealed that their son Shai, 5, often asked about having a sibling.

"It was a lot some days," she admitted at the time. "Very emotional because I didn't know what to tell him anymore. I told him the first two times, but I kept it vague. I didn't make it into this whole, 'Oh my God, we're having a baby,' thing. I just said, 'Be careful with Mummy's belly. She has a baby in there.' "

Peta Murgatroyd, Maksim Cherkovskiy & Shai — Amanda Friedman

"I guess that's been another really hard part of it because he sees other kids with siblings," Murgatroyd shared.

The two-time mirror ball champion tells PEOPLE she knows the sex of her baby on the way but isn't sure if she'll be announcing it anytime soon.

"I can't wait," says Murgatroyd, who's due in June. "I need to know those things."

Now that she's out of the first trimester, Murgatroyd is excited to show her baby bump off to the world.

"It's going to be so good that I can just go around and not wear baggy clothes now," Murgatroyd says. "I can get on social media and show my whole body. I've been doing everything from the boobs up."

She's also having fun indulging in her cravings, which include a lot of carb-filled, salty goodies.

"I have salt cravings," Murgatroyd says. "Everything is savory. I don't feel like ice cream. I don't feel like cookies right now. I mean, that could all change. I just want bread and pasta and rice and all the good stuff."

They aren't the only people in the family with exciting baby news this week as Maks' brother Val Chmerkovskiy, 36, and wife Jenna Johnson, 28, welcomed their first child on January 10.

"It is just a blessing at the end of the year for my family," she says, adding that son Shai is "over the moon" about the exciting news. "It's just been a whirlwind. The best blessing for us, truly."

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Peta Murgatroyd, Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson — Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

As 2023 opens a new door, the soon-to-be mom of two is grateful for a positive outcome after having a difficult year in her journey to conceive.

"I literally was praying to the gods about this, but it's so funny because I was at a stage where I had let [the idea of pregnancy] go. I was about to call it. I had called the IVF doctor to start my second round again and I had let it go. As in I was like, 'If I'm a one-time mom, if I have one child for the rest of my life, I have to be happy with it.' "

"I think that was also a catalyst for me, for my body and my mind and my soul to let it go and to move on and not have this harboring feeling inside of me that I needed more," she says. "And to just be grateful for what I have."