Afshan Azad announces pregnancy, Harry Potter cast-mates congratulate her

Afshan Azad, the actor who played Padma Patil in the Harry Potter film series, has announced her pregnancy. She took to Instagram on Monday to share a couple of pictures.

"The secrets out everyone - I'm going to be a mummy!!!" she captioned her post, which showed her posing with husband Nabil Kazi. "Thanking Allah SWT for gifting us our biggest blessing yet. Baby Kazi due this July inshAllah. Both our hearts are filled with love, excitement and nerves! Not long to go, please keep us all in your prayers," she added.

Her Harry Potter co-stars Evanna Lynch and Bonnie Wright dropped congratulatory messages. "Awww congratulations Afshan, you're going to be amazing parents!!" Evanna, who played Luna Lovegood in the films, wrote. Bonnie, who played Ginny Weasley, commented, "So excited!!!!!! baby kazi has the best parents."

In a follow-up post, Afshan wrote, "Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and well wishes. We were so overwhelmed with everyone's positivity and love yesterday. Baby Kazi is already so so loved. Ps prepare for a major bump photo-dump over the next few days/weeks. Sorry not sorry."

Last year, another Harry Potter cast member, Rupert Grint, welcomed a baby girl. Lead actor Daniel Radcliffe in an interview spoke about how strange it feels to see his friends having kids. "I texted him the other day," he said during a virtual appearance on Watch What Happens Live with host Andy Cohen. "I'm so happy for him. It's very, very cool. It is also super weird for me to think that we are all of the age where we are having children, but we definitely are."

Padma's most prominent moment in the Harry Potter films came in the fourth one (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), in which she and her on-screen sister Parvati Patil went as Harry and Ron Weasley's dates to the Yule Ball.