'I've always wanted to be a mum!' Tracy Beaker actress Dani Harmer announces she is pregnant with her first child 

She is seen as the eternal teenager by her legion of fans, but now Tracy Beaker actress Dani Harmer is finally all grown up as she has revealed she is pregnant with her first child.

The former Strictly Come Dancing star, 26, and her boyfriend Simon Brough will welcome a baby this summer after almost a year together.

She told Hello! magazine: 'I absolutely can't wait. I'm also really nervous. But I guess I just have to take each day as it comes. I've always wanted to be a mum.'

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Baby joy: Former Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer, 26,  is expecting her first child with boyfriend Simon Brough this summer after almost a year together

Dani, who shot to fame playing troubled child Tracy Beaker on CBBC in 2002, is already sharing her hopes and dreams of being a mum -  and a fun one at that.

Luckily she already has a role model and plans to model herself on her own mum.

She said: 'I want to be a fun mum. My mum was really fun and she was a friend as well as a mum. That's what I'd like to have with my child. I know I can tell my mum absolutely anything.

'I think if you can find the balance between respect and friendship, combining all those things into one, that would be perfect.'

Straight-talking: Dani, in a throwback picture from her Tracy Beaker days, knows exactly what kind of parent she wants to be. . .  And that's a fun mum. She said: 'I want to be a fun mum. My mum was really fun [sic].'

Strictly speaking: Dani, pictured here on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, said she knows exactly what kind of mum she wants to be -  just like her own mother - fun!

Read the full article in Hello!, out now . 

On the prospect of becoming a parent, she told Hello!: 'We're over the moon. I still wake up every morning and go, "'I'm pregnant." It was amazing seeing the scan. I find the whole thing absolutely fascinating. What an amazing, clever thing to be going on inside my body.

'I absolutely can't wait. I'm also really nervous. But I guess I just have to take each day as it comes. I've always wanted to be a mum.'

The couple have decided not to wed until their child is older - and don't want to get married just because of the pregnancy.

Simon Brough, her boyfriend said: 'Starting a family is something we've joked about pretty much from day one.

'But we don't want to get married just because we're having a baby. Dani wants the little one to walk up the aisle with us, so we'll have to wait a fair few years for that.'

Since playing Tracy, she starred as Janet in a production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in 2013.

The pretty brunette told Hello! magazine: 'People still see me as a teenager.

'I did the Rocky Horror Show a couple of years ago and some people were like: 'Hang on ... Tracy Beaker's going to be in her underwear on stage?'  

Read the full article in Hello!, out now.