Actress Dani Harmer has said she was devastated at having to undergo an emergency caesarean section.

The former Tracy Beaker star opened up about the birth of her first child with boyfriend Simon Brough to Hello! magazine.

The delivery of their daughter, whose full name is Avarie-Belle Betsy Rachel Brough, was gruelling. Dani was exhausted after being in labour for three days.

Dani Harmer and Simon Brough
Dani Harmer and Simon Brough (Hello!)

“I was devastated. I cried a lot,” she told the magazine.

“My birth plan was literally, ‘birthing pool, whale music, no drugs, let’s just try and be really hippy about it and do some breathing’. But it just turned into the complete opposite.”

The 27-year-old added: “Once she’d come out, I started to regain feeling so I could feel literally everything they were doing.”

Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer
Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer (Ian West/PA)

Dani remains best known for her 10-year role as Tracy Beaker. She played the character in CBBC’s The Story Of Tracy Beaker, which premiered in 2002, and its various spin-offs.

Berkshire-born Dani, who participated in Strictly Come Dancing in 2012, spoke with warmth about her daughter. Baby Avarie was born in June weighing in at six pounds and nine ounces.

She said: “I just feel the most happy I’ve ever felt in my entire life. We’re in a complete little love bubble.”

Dani Harmer and Vincent Simone on Strictly Come Dancing
Dani Harmer and Vincent Simone on Strictly Come Dancing (Guy Levy/BBC)

Celebrity friends have already been in touch to offer their congratulations to the new parents. Dani’s former Strictly dance partner Vincent Simone is eager to meet Avarie.

Dani said: “Hopefully Avarie will have a bit of rhythm then we can send her off with Uncle Vincent and he can teach her a bit of ballroom.”

Pregnant Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh was also “overjoyed” to hear of Avarie’s arrival.

Dani Harmer on Strictly Come Dancing
Dani Harmer on Strictly Come Dancing (Guy Levy/BBC)

Asked if the couple had marriage plans, Simon said it would be part of their future. “I’m really keen on that, but I want to do it right.”

He continued: “I want to build a much better relationship with her father in particular and I want to ask, man to man, and I want him to feel confident that it’s a good choice.

“I just feel it’s the right thing to do.”

Read the full interview in Hello!, out now.