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The word is out - songster Bic Runga is pregnant.
The Christchurch-born star who lives in Auckland let the news slip, somewhat shyly, to the Queenstown paper Mountain Scene this week.
After three months of hush-hush, Runga couldn't hold it in any longer when asked what her plans were for 2007. "We're actually pregnant. Well, he's not [laughing]. I'm pregnant. It's cool eh?
"We've only started to tell people really," she continued. "We haven't made it a big thing - you know, I'm not Angelina Jolie or anything, and he's not Brad Pitt [laughing]."
Runga's other half is her partner of five years, photographer Darryl Ward. The West Auckland couple keep their relationship private.
Asked if the pregnancy was planned, Runga tripped over her words.
"Well, I mean, I don't know," said the mum-to-be, who celebrated her 31st birthday last month. "I guess it was just time, I suppose, for me."
Runga made the announcement official on her MySpace site, apologising to fans for being off the radar recently.
"I thought you might want to hear it from me, in case you see me eating pies on High St," the singer posted.
"It's torture finding clothes to wear. It's a good thing tent dresses are back. Otherwise, there might be trouble."
Ahead of her first NZ winery tour date, which starts in Matakana, north of Auckland tomorrow, Runga continued: "[I've] just come out of the feeling sick phase. Been really bored lying in bed eating malt biscuits, so very happy to be on the road."
NZ's biggest-selling female artist is due to give birth in July - but she's not putting her feet up yet.
Following her NZ winery tour, she heads to the US to play gigs in Boston, New York and Los Angeles at the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood, where greats such as Elton John - one of Runga's fans, whom she met at a British music awards night last year - launched their careers.
Runga met another high-profile fan in 2006 - Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
The singer was "quite struck" by the Zeppelin idol, who at the end of their conversation said to her, "God bless you Bic".
"I remember thinking - isn't he, like, a Satanist or something? I felt it was nice to be blessed by Jimmy Page. That was cool." she said. "Yeah, it's different being a New Zealander, you're pretty grounded. I could imagine that international fame could be quite a scary thing."
The down-to-Earth singer-songwriter will record her fourth album this year.
