Karoline Leavitt, 28, Expecting Baby No. 2 with Husband Nicholas Riccio, 60, Will Be First Pregnant White House Press Secretary

Leavitt’s news comes a few weeks after her nephew and godson’s mom, Bruna Caroline Ferreira, was detained by ICE and held for deportation in November

Karoline Leavitt.Credit : 

Karoline Leavitt/Instagram

Karoline Leavitt’s family is growing.

The White House press secretary, 28, is pregnant and expecting her second baby with husband Nicholas Riccio, 60, sharing the news on Instagram. In the pictures, Leavitt could be seen posing in front of the Christmas tree in a white sweater dress, holding her stomach.

“The greatest Christmas gift we could ever ask for – a baby girl coming in May 2026.☺️,” Leavitt wrote in her caption. “My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother. My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth. 🥹.”

Leavitt’s news comes a few weeks after her nephew and godson’s mom, Bruna Caroline Ferreira, was detained by ICE and held for deportation in November.

Leavitt and her husband are already parents to son Niko, 18 months.

A senior White House official told Fox News that Leavitt will remain in her post as press secretary, which would make her the first pregnant press secretary in history. PEOPLE has reached out to the White House for comment.

Leavitt and Riccio got engaged over the Christmas holiday in 2023 and welcomed their son, Nicholas Robert Riccio, nicknamed “Niko,” on July 10, 2024.

Shortly after giving birth to her son Niko, Leavitt returned to work on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for the presidency, saying she was motivated to forgo maternity leave following the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pa.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,’ ” she told The Conservateur in an October 2024 interview.

On Nov. 12, Ferreira, who shares her son with Leavitt’s older brother, Michael Leavitt — was arrested and detained by ICE while picking up her 11-year-old son from school in Revere, Mass.

Speaking about the instance while breaking her silence to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Dec. 12, Ferreira, who appeared alongside her attorney Todd Pomerleau, also shared some choice words for Leavitt, who is her child’s godmother. (Ferreira chose Karoline for the role “over my sister,” she told CNN.)

“I think what I would have to say to Karoline is: Just because you went to a Catholic school doesn’t make you a good Catholic,” Ferreira told Burnett.

“You are a mother now,” Ferreira continued, referencing Karoline’s role as a mom to her son, Niko. “How would you feel if you were in those, in my shoes? … How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”

The White House press secretary has not publicly commented on the arrest, and a source previously told PEOPLE that she hasn’t spoken with Ferreira, brother Michael’s ex-fiancée and co-parent, “in many years.”

Ferreira arrived in the United States from Brazil in 1998, when she was 6 years old, she recalled to CNN. At the time of her arrest, she was in the process of obtaining a green card, and she had previously been protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.

Ferreira was released from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center on an immigration judge’s orders days before breaking her silence on CNN, the outlet reported.

The release came after weeks of what Ferreira told CNN was a “mind-boggling” experience of being “shuffled around the entire country” as federal agents refused to tell her where she was going.

After the news of Ferreira’s detainment broke, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed her arrest to PEOPLE, claiming that her tourist visa had expired in 1999.

They also alleged that Ferreira “has a previous arrest for battery,” but her attorney has repeatedly disputed this.

On Dec. 12, Ferreira also disputed the claim to CNN, describing herself as “a law-abiding citizen.”

Asked about the Trump administration’s repeated claim that she is a “criminal,” Ferreira told Burnett, “I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken for my son. You know, I’m heartbroken for my mother, who has worked for a quarter of a century cleaning houses, earned an honest living, has paid her taxes. I’ve been a law-abiding citizen. I don’t even have a parking ticket. And I’m so proud of it.”