Cariba Heine is pregnant!
The 36-year-old South African-born Australian actress and dancer, who is best known for her role as Rikki Chadwick in H2O: Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids, has revealed on social media she’s expecting her first child with her husband.
It comes six months after she tied the knot with Matthew Pongrass in Tuscany, Italy.
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“Spoilt doesn’t even cut it but pregnancy is HARD WORK. So I’ll take it,” Heine wrote on Instagram on December 20 alongside a series of snaps from a getaway at luxury resort One&Only Cape Town.
One such snap shows Heine, wearing a brown bikini, standing in a pool as she cradles her growing baby bump.
Her announcement was flooded with messages of congratulations from her loved ones and fans alike, with Heine’s H2O: Just Add Water co-stars also writing well wishes.
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“Congratulations B 💕💕💕🎄,” Phoebe Tonkin, who played Cleo Sertori in the series, commented on the Instagram post.
”Awwww congrats B!!!!!” Claire Holt, who played Emma Gilbert, wrote.
Heine and Pongrass married in June, with Heine confirming the news on Instagram with one photo and two words.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/C8mfDUvPlO9/?hl=en
“We did,” she wrote alongside a snap of herself and Pongrass, in their wedding attire, kissing in a vineyard.
The couple’s romance has been kept relatively private over the years, though it’s understood they had been dating for several years before announcing their engagement in January 2022.
Following H2O: Just Add Water, Heine went on to star in Dance Academy and Home and Away.
Her most recent role was in 2023, where she starred as Goldie in Wellmania.
In 2021, when asked about a potential reboot of H2O: Just Add Water, Heine told Yahoo! why she doesn’t think it’s on the cards.
“I think we were extremely lucky with our cast, I’d love to work with those guys again,” Heine said of her time on the show that made her famous.
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“But I think more than anything it’s just like, you start looking at like, older mermaids,” she continued.
“I don’t know if it translates. I think high school students are the perfect age group to set that sort of world in.”
She also said she’s happy with the direction her career has gone in the years following, telling the outlet: ”I think more than anything, a couple of years ago I sort of decided that I loved playing a villain and not a very nice character. The show just pushed me the other way where I don’t really want to play a hero anymore, I want to play someone that you love to hate.”
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