Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerskovskiy have a baby on the way! The Dancing with the Stars couple shared their pregnancy news to People on July 15. Jenna, 28, is due in January 2023 and recalled feeling “shock” and “disbelief” when learning she was expecting her first child after her and Val, 36, returned home from a trip to Cabo. “I couldn’t believe it because it wasn’t an easy journey for us to get pregnant. But everybody tells you, ‘When you just relax and you don’t put the stress on yourself, it happens for you.’ That’s exactly what happened,” Jenna added. “I think it was exactly when it was meant to be. Our little baby was created with a lot of love. It all seems so magical and meant to be.”
Jenna also described how she told Val that they were going to be parents. She bought a pair of small Baby Jordans sneakers and put them in a box along with two pregnancy tests. “He nonchalantly walked in and he, ironically enough, had a bag of Nikes. I was like, ‘Did you go shopping today?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I got myself some new sneakers.’ I’m like, ‘No way. I got some too today,’ ” Jenna recalled. “He came over and chucked off the lid of the box and started rummaging through it. He looked at the shoes and was like, ‘How small are these sneakers?’ Then it hit him and his face … it was priceless.”
With two trimesters to go, Jenna admitted that her first three months of pregnancy were “a scary time,” but now she’s focused on relaxing and keeping her body healthy. That means she won’t be competing in the upcoming season of DWTS which premieres in September, though Val plans to be back on the show. “I’m just giving my body the necessary rest,” she said. “I think that’s the best thing I can do for myself. It’s also just taught me that I can be okay with downtime. I don’t need to overwork myself.”
Jenna also commended Val — who she married in April 2019 — on how he’s been handling her pregnancy journey. She believes that the Ukrainian dancer is going to be an amazing father. “He is so selfless and loving. Between the two of us, is by far the more patient one. So I think, all of these little attributes are going to just make him an incredible dad,” she said.