Actor Desmond Tan and wife expecting first child and he’s already bought 'daddy’s girl' her first gift

In all the years we’d known Desmond Tan, we’d never encountered him so… Giggly. It had everything to do with the fact that the actor and his wife of two years are expecting their first child. The pregnancy is four months along and the baby is due in March next year.

“It’s so magical. It’s one of the best feelings anyone can have,” he gushed, when we congratulated him over the phone.

He was speaking about the moment his wife brought him the positive pregnancy test. “She held it out to show me. Through her eyes, I knew what the result was,” he recounted.

While he couldn’t be more excited to meet his baby, “I just hope I won’t faint in the delivery room”, he quipped. “I don’t want to become a story for the nurses and gynaecologists to talk about, and for them to say, ‘Eh, the actor Desmond Tan fainted’!”

About his parenthood journey, “it was part of our plan to have our first kid within the first two to three years of our marriage”, said the 37-year-old, who had previously shared that he’d ideally like three children.

He then asked us to guess the baby’s gender, and when we hazarded, “Boy?” he guffawed and said, “You’re the third person to guess ‘boy’!” And, he gleefully revealed, we were wrong. It’s a girl – and “that was the gender we were hoping for for our first kid”.

He mused: “When I was much younger, I thought I wanted a boy to play sports with me; to go for runs, cycle and play soccer with.” But as time progressed, “my missus and I were hoping more for a girl, at least for the first kid. I just feel a girl will be more loving”. And, he’s unabashedly looking forward to a “daddy’s girl” relationship with his little princess.

For the gender reveal, which took place during Formula 1 week, the couple entrusted a friend with the results, then gathered their close family members for dinner in a private room at a restaurant. The friend prepared balloons for them to pop, one of which held a pink stuffed animal.

“I wasn’t aware of how I reacted until I saw a video of it. I was celebrating like an F1 driver with both hands punching the air,” Desmond laughed.

A girl will take better care of younger siblings who might come along, he thinks, and besides, “Dressing up a daughter is more fun”.

Guess he’s not planning on raising a gender-neutral kid, then. In fact, during a work trip to Paris last week, the excited father-to-be said, he’d already started buying clothing for his baby.

In between work engagements, “I went shopping for her. The first gift I got for her is from Paris, the city of fashion”, he said, describing a “dainty” navy blue dress with “cute pockets” which he realises is “not that practical” for a newborn; as well as a T-shirt and overalls.

“It was so hard to contain the excitement, holding up the clothes, taking photos and sending them to my wife,” he said.

Although the couple have an English name and a Chinese name in mind, they are leaning at the moment towards keeping the child’s personal details private, he said.

But he’s already started talking to the baby and calling her little nicknames – and trying to subliminally influence her “to say ‘dada’ first”.

What kind of dad does he think he’ll be? He laughed: “I’m a commando officer and we are very disciplined. I work towards my dreams and am very on the ball, soldier-like. But when the kid comes along, I think I might soften… I hope I won’t pamper the little one too much.”

We can already sense that this hope is halfhearted and will most certainly prove futile.

Meanwhile, friends say that he's become "more caring” towards his wife, he said. “I make sure she doesn’t carry anything heavy and has her meals on time. Every morning, I ask her, ‘What do you feel like eating today?’ And then we head out for Teochew porridge, mee rebus, mee siam… She has a wide variety of cravings. I even cooked for her, despite my busy schedule. One day, I spontaneously decided to cook a huge feast. I overestimated the portions and there was enough for lunch and dinner the next day.”

Besides eating for three, the couple are busy turning their spare room into a nursery, which will have a neutral colour theme to match their monochromatic house, Desmond shared.

Firstborns usually look like their fathers but, he said, with more giggles, “I hope she looks like my missus. She’s really pretty. I hope my little one has my wife’s eyes and face”.

His own face, meanwhile, is aching: “My jaws are really sore. I’ve spent this whole interview smiling so much.”