Chris Evans and Alba Baptista have embarked on a new chapter as parents, welcoming their first child roughly two years into their marriage. The couple had a baby girl whom they named Alma Grace Baptista Evans. The name honours Baptista’s Portuguese heritage while symbolising the love she and Evans share, as Alma means “soul” in Portuguese, reflecting that their daughter is both the fruit of their love and the soul of their marriage.
Although the couple is reportedly savouring these early days as first-time parents, they nearly had the surprise spoiled four months before their child’s birth. Baptista’s father commented on an Instagram post celebrating Father’s Day, which featured Chris and Alba with their fathers, saying, “Many thanks, dear Chris, your turn is coming!” The fan account that shared the post quickly restricted comments and deleted his remark, but by then, the rumour mill was already running.
Love In The Age of Noise
Chris Evans and Alba Baptista began dating around 2021 and have deliberately kept a low profile, striving to maintain a modicum of privacy in today’s hyperconnected world, where it’s nearly impossible not to leave a digital footprint. To make matters worse, in the modern celebrity culture, the paparazzi are no longer simply photographers. They have morphed into ghoulish stalkers and an omnipresent entity fueled by social media, carefully watching every footstep and ready to knock down any door to get a snippet of something hot and flashy. After all, in Hollywood, ears and eyes tend to wander when the curtains are transparent and the walls are made of glass.
Since the couple wanted to safeguard their relationship from the public eye, the waters remain muddy as of yet regarding the exact circumstances of their first meeting. However, the earliest reports trace back to 2022, when the Captain America star was said to have been dating the Portuguese actress for a year already, having first met in Europe while filming a project in 2021.
Consequently, their 16-year age gap was never under intense media scrutiny. Perhaps, also because they, unlike many celebrity couples, have never been in the news for a scandal, with Chris’ family and friends reportedly adoring her right from the get-go, according to an inside source close to the couple.
Evans and Baptista Make It Official
More clarity emerged when People magazine named Chris Evans the Sexiest Man Alive in 2022. In the accompanying interview, he candidly talked about maturing as a romantic partner, “You spend a lot of time learning what’s been helpful and what hasn’t been. We all have patterns, hang-ups or baggage that repeat and echo, so I’ve really been able to kind of identify where I need improvement and what works.”
And just hours after the issue was released, the lovebirds were spotted holding hands while taking a stroll in Central Park, New York. They tried their best to remain discreet and not attract the media’s attention, but despite wearing masks, glasses and hats like a couple of undercover agents, they were inevitably hounded by the paparazzi.
On Valentine’s Day 2023, Chris took to Instagram to make their relationship official, sharing a carousel of affectionate photos with Alba. Later that year, the couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Cape Cod, near Chris’ hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. The wedding was a private affair, with only family and close friends in attendance. The hosts required guests to sign NDAs and surrender their phones before entering the venue. Hollywood A-listers present included Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Jeremy Renner, and Robert Downey Jr.
The couple held a second ceremony specifically for Alba’s relatives who couldn’t attend the Cape Cod wedding, after which they departed for their honeymoon. Once the couple made their relationship public and cemented it under the light of God and the law alike, they soon made their red carpet debut at the Vanity Fair Oscars party.
Evans Fulfils His Dream Of Domestic Bliss
Unlike many celebrity couples, they decided not to announce the pregnancy and remained under the radar, leading to the birth of their child being a pleasant surprise. But to his most ardent fans, it comes as no surprise considering he had previously opened up about wanting a wife, kids and building a family to People magazine in 2022.
And just last year, in an interview with Access Hollywood, Chris embraced the idea of being a “superhero” dad, saying, “The title of dad is an exciting one.” Not only that, but he also shared his future holiday plans for his kids, “I’m one of four, and we are all very tight-knit. We’re all very close in age, so we would all sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve, on the floor, pick a Christmas movie, and try to force yourself to sleep. That’s what I hope, that my kids will enjoy each other’s company as much as my siblings and I did.”
One might wonder if Evans was leaving little crumbs toward what was to come, or perhaps more accurately, he was manifesting his desires and thrusting them to form his reality. Much before all of this, he had told Men’s Journal in 2019 how eager he felt to start a family, “I like pretty pedestrian, domestic things, I want a wife, I want kids. I like ceremonies. I want to carve pumpkins and decorate Christmas trees and shit like that.” And eventually Chris’ desire for marital bliss came true shortly after issuing these statements.
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