Michelle Branch is Pregnant, Expecting a Baby in Early 2022

Michelle Branch and her husband, Black Keys drummers Patrick Carney, are expecting their second child together. The singer-songwriter announced her pregnancy on social media on Sunday (Aug. 15), choosing an adorable baking-themed motif to break the news about her “bun in the oven.”

“You know you’re pregnant when…” she wrote in the caption of her post, alongside a slideshow of images and video of a batch of scones she made, complete with some difficult-to-track-down English toppings that were crucial for fulfilling a pregnancy craving.

“Woke up to a picture my friend Sonya sent of scones she was eating in England and I immediately had to hop out of bed and make a batch myself,” Branch explained. “[Carney] was my hero (as usual) and went to the market in search of double cream.”

Branch and Carney are already parents to a son, Rhys James, who was born in August of 2018. The pop singer-songwriter and onetime Wreckers bandmate is also mom to a teenage daughter, Owen, from her previous marriage to Teddy Landau.

In December 2020, Branch revealed she’d recently suffered a miscarriage. Even as she celebrates her happy news, the singer says, that painful experience in her past is adding some extra stress to her current pregnancy.

“Couldn’t be more excited (and nervous! Hello, pregnancy after miscarriage anyone?!) to announce baby Carney is coming early 2022!” Branch added.

Also at the end of 2020, Branch and her Wreckers band mate Jessica Harp started hinting that the duo might be planning to release some new music. Early in December, Harp posted two neon sign-style “Coming Soon” graphics to Twitter, encouraging fans to follow newly-created Instagram and Twitter accounts for the Wreckers.

The Wreckers then posted an image on Instagram of the two artists together, along with a graphic of their band name. “2020 doesn’t deserve this. See you in 2021,” they wrote in the caption of their post.

The pair first came together back in 2005 when Branch, by then a successful solo artist, recruited Harp, a longtime friend and her backing vocalist for a project that would merge their respective pop-rock and country styles. They signed to Maverick Records and released their debut — and, thus far, only — studio album, Stand Still, Look Pretty, in May of 2006.

They earned a No. 1 country hit with the Gold-certified “Stand Still, Look Pretty,” and their follow-up single, “My, Oh My” also charted inside country radio’s Top 10. A live album followed in 2007, but the Wreckers split up in 2008 to focus on solo projects.