‘Our little princess’
Barretts welcome a baby girl
All Blacks star Beauden Barrett and wife Hannah have welcomed their baby daughter to the world.
Barrett took to Instagram yesterday to announce the arrival of Billie Rose Barrett on Wednesday. “Our little princess,” he called her. “You are an absolute superstar and your mum and dad love you so much,” Hannah added.
The pair were married early last year, before moving up to Auckland. With the move, Barrett joined the Blues from the Hurricanes.
In naming their daughter Billie, the couple followed in the footsteps of fellow All Black, Richie Mo’unga. He and wife Sophie welcomed their daughter Billie Marie Mo’unga into the world on August 16. The All Blacks and their wives are on trend.
Billie has been rising in popularity over the last few years. In 2019, 49 Kiwi girls were called Billie, making it the 58th most popular girls’ name in the country. That’s three times as many as in 1999.
Billie is a well-known name in popular culture. Singer Billie Eilish shot to fame in 2017 while Carrie Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, has been making a name for herself as an actress, starring in Scream Queens and American Horror Story. Then there’s British actress Billie Piper, who leapt to fame in the early 2000s when she starred in Dr Who.
New dad Barrett said he was taking a wait and see approach to his availability in the upcoming Rugby Championship after a suggestion from one media outlet that some All Blacks were considering pulling out of the competition for family reasons.
But Barrett, interviewed on Gold AM’s Country Sport Breakfast, said he thought “journos are getting a bit excited — have too much time to think of what ifs and all that sort of thing”.
He wasn’t definitive about his availability, only saying that Taranaki’s Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury last weekend “could be my last game for a couple of weeks. We don’t have much in front of us, in facts and details. It’s hard to make a decision,” he said.