Chris Evans at Hay 2011

Chris Evans was has become a big fan of the Hay Festival “once you’ve been to the Hay Festival you become a lifelong addict its brilliant!”.  Evans was in Hay to present a Radio 2 breakfast special when he got the call. His excitement about the birth must have been tinged with a little disappointment about leaving the Festival, when he heard at around 8pm last night that his wife had gone into labour.

He was helicoptered out of Hay to make the dash to London to be by the side of his other half  Natasha Shishmanian.  He  tweeted: ‘Was at Hay. No longer. Back in the air. On the way to Baby Drop! Good luck with the show guys and well done to all the 500 Words finalists x.’

After a labour that lasted just 52 minutes the couple’s second son Eli Alfred Michael Evans arrived in plenty of time to catch Chris’s BBC Radio 2 breakfast show from Hay presented by stand ins David Walliams and Alex Jones.  Baby is well and weighs seven pounds thirteen ounces, and according to Chris “mum is rocking”.