Kate Winslet and Ned Rocknroll welcome first child in NHS Hospital

The Oscar-winning actress chose not to deliver her third child in the comforts afforded by a private hospital

The Oscar-winning actress chose not to deliver her third child in the comforts afforded by a private hospital (Getty Images)

Kate Winslet has given birth to a baby boy, her representative has confirmed.

The actress, 38, and the 9lb newborn are said to be “doing great” after her first child with new husband Ned Rocknroll was born at a hospital in Sussex on Saturday.

But the Oscar-winning star chose not to deliver her third child in the comforts afforded by a private hospital, instead relying on the service of the NHS.

“Kate had ‘Baby Boy Winslet’ on Saturday at an NHS Hospital," her spokeswoman revealed, before adding that the couple “thrilled to bits” by the new arrival.

While the baby boy is the first child for Winslet and Rocknroll, it is her third overall, joining daughter Mia, 13, and Joe, nine, from her first two marriages to Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes.

Winslet met Rocknroll – who works on the space-travel wing of Virgin – when she holidayed on his uncle Richard Branson’s Necker Island.

The pair wed in secret last December after a whirlwind romance.

Those wondering about Rocknroll’s rather peculiar surname will be unsurprised to know it wasn’t the moniker his was born with. Originally known as Ned Abel Smith, he made the decision to change his name by deed poll.

Rocknroll was previously married to UK heiress Eliza Pearson, whom he wed in a pagan ceremony led by a druid in 2009. They divorced two years later.