Baby joy for Gwyneth

When the slender Gwyneth Paltrow appeared this week looking uncharacteristically buxom, observers suspected a happy event might be in the offing.

And last night it was confirmed that the actress is pregnant.

She and her British boyfriend, rock star Chris Martin, are expecting their first child in the summer.

With the couple both taking a year off work, the timing could not be better.

Yesterday a source close to 31-year-old Miss Paltrow told the Mail: 'She is absolutely ecstatic. They only just started trying and are thrilled that it happened so quickly.

'Gwyneth and Chris are devoted to each other and will probably get married before they have the baby.

'It is particularly poignant because her father died just over a year ago, which devastated her, and this is the best thing that could have happened.'

The friend said that despite Miss Paltrow's curvaceous appearance in a Stella McCartney dress at a New York awards ceremony, it was too early for her to have put on any weight.

It was also too early, it seems, to have delivered the good news to Martin's parents Anthony and Alison.

Last night at his manor house in Whitestone near Exeter, Mr Martin said: 'We are the last people to know anything. It's no good talking to us.'

Miss Paltrow, who won an Oscar in 1998 for Shakespeare In Love, has made no secret of her plans to start a family.

'I want a husband and children,' she

said earlier this year. 'I'm looking forward to family life.'

And asked eight years ago how she envisaged life when she was 33, she said: ' Hopefully, I'll be married, with three or four children. Just at peace, you know.'

She and Coldplay singer Martin, who is five years younger than her, have been together for 18 months. Although they have denied being engaged, Miss Paltrow has been seen with a ring on her wedding finger and asked last month by Michael Parkinson whether she was planning to marry she said: 'I don't know. I hope so.'

Martin has been less open about his feelings and in August said the couple had 'no plans' to marry. However, friends say both come from very traditional families and they are likely to wed soon.

The actress has just finished filming the movie Proof, with Anthony Hopkins, and apart from a couple of short projects is expected to spend most of 2004 away from work.

Martin has also confirmed that Coldplay will be taking a year off because they want to 'refresh' themselves.

Despite initially appearing to be an odd couple - she is from Hollywood 'royalty' while he is from Devon and attended a minor public school - Miss Paltrow and Martin found much in common. They are both teetotal, follow a macrobiotic diet and admit to being 'geeks'. The two became particularly close after the death from a heart attack of Miss Paltrow's film director father Bruce, 58, last October during an Italian holiday with her to celebrate her 30th birthday.

She admitted that his death had sent her into a clinical depression.

Miss Paltrow said recently of Martin: 'He understands my perspective and where I'm coming from.'

Before dating Martin, Miss Paltrow walked out with two of the world's biggest heart throbs.

She was engaged to Brad Pitt, 39, for a year and admitted recently that she regretted the way she behaved with him. He is now married to Friends actress Jennifer Aniston.

Following that romance she became engaged to actor Ben Affleck but that relationship also failed to last.

She and Martin will bring up their child in England. Each owns a flat in London and they are believed to be looking for a 'family home' in Belsize Park.