‘Designated Survivor’ Actress Announces Birth of Baby Boy

A Designated Survivor actress is officially a mother.

Cariba Heine, who appeared as Peyton Lane on three episodes of the political drama in 2017, took to Instagram on May 14 to share that she has given birth.

“Besotted with this baby boy,” the Australian actress, 36, captioned a photo of her and her sleepy bundle of joy. Heine revealed in December that she was expecting, showing off her growing baby bump alongside the caption, “Spoilt doesn’t even cut it but pregnancy is HARD WORK. So I’ll take it.”

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A post shared by Cariba Heine (@caribaheine)

Plenty of Heine’s famous friends and co-stars took to her comments to share their congratulations. The Originals star Claire Holt, who starred in the Australian series H2O: Just Add Water alongside Heine for the first two seasons, wrote, “Awwwwww congrats !!!!” alongside three face-holding-back-tears emojis. Chicago Med’s Luke Mitchell, who was in the third season of H2O, added, “Beautiful” with a red heart emoji. Actress Cassie Scerbo said, “Congratulations, beautiful! He is so precious!!!” with a blue heart and heart eyes emojis.

News of the pregnancy came just over six months after Heine said “I do” to husband Matt Pong. They tied the knot in Tuscany, Italy, in June, according to an Instagram post. It’s unknown how long they were together and when they got engaged, but they seem to be as happy as ever, especially with their new little one. Heine has not revealed her baby son’s name, but she and Pong had temporarily named the baby Billy/Billie Blob in utero “because our nephew started telling people I had ‘a blob’ in my stomach early on when the ultrasounds (accurately) showed, well, a little blob,” she wrote in an Instagram post in April.

Cariba Heine can most recently be seen in the series Everyone Is Doing Great, appearing as Isabella Beck from 2021 to 2023. Other credits include Wellmania, The Secrets She Keeps, Home and Away, Adopted, Dance Academy, and Blue Water High. She is best known for her role as Rikki Chadwick in all three seasons of the supernatural fantasy comedy H2O: Just Add Water from 2006 to 2010. She reprised the role in two episodes of the spinoff Mako Mermaids in 2016. Whether Heine will return to acting once she’s spent more time with her baby boy is unknown, but that is more than likely the last thing on her mind.