Shay Mitchell Announced She's Expecting Her 2nd Baby With Poignant Post

There’s big news on the horizon for Shay Mitchell’s 2-year-old daughter Atlas; she’s going to be a big sister. The Pretty Little Liars star took to Instagram on Monday to share the exciting news that she is expecting her second baby with partner Matte Babel. The expectant mom shared a photo of her bare baby bump along with the announcement, although sadly it was a somewhat bittersweet moment. Mitchell recently lost her grandmother, and admitted in her post that “saying goodbye to a loved one while simultaneously experiencing the joy of welcoming another into this world is the great cycle of life.”

Mitchell was especially close to her grandmother, and recently wrote a poignant tribute to the woman she called “my best friend” along with photos of them together and with little Atlas. While she is clearly heartbroken over the loss of someone so important to her, she is taking comfort in her new pregnancy. “I can’t help but think this was the universe’s plan all along, knowing I would need other worldly joy to cushion the blow of losing one of the most important people in my life,” Mitchell wrote in her pregnancy announcement post. “Yet, this is proof that love, life and loss can profoundly exist all at the same time. Gram, I miss you every day. Little one, we are so excited to meet you. I breathe a sigh of peace knowing you two are already connected in such a cosmic way.”

Mitchell and Babel first became parents when they welcomed daughter Atlas in Oct. 2019, and since then the couple have fully embraced their new world as mom and dad. Although Mitchell did admit to Romper in 2020 that she sometimes misses the life she had before having a baby. “In a way, you really do have to mourn the life that you had,” she said at the time. “It was time, and I'd prepared myself for it, but still, there are moments where you're just like, ‘Well, I'll never be that person again.’”

This is the beauty of a second pregnancy; Mitchell has already gone through that first baby life shift and so a second baby could well feel a bit more familiar to the life she has now. The You actress didn’t share any details on her due date or the sex of the baby, but you can be sure of one thing; she’ll be remembering her grandmother as she welcomes this new life into the world. And her baby will be all the better for it.