Josh Duhamel Welcomes Daughter Rocca With Wife Audra Mari

Josh Duhamel is officially a girl dad. The Transformers star and his wife, model Audra Mari, welcomed their daughter on Saturday, May 16 — and the first photos already have the internet melting.

“Rocca de Leon Duhamel our baby girl is here,” the couple announced in a joint Instagram post, sharing a carousel of early moments that included the newborn meeting her big brother Shepherd and, in one particularly tender shot, a visibly near-tears Duhamel cradling his daughter for the first time.

Rocca joins brother Shepherd, who arrived in January 2024, and half-brother Axl, 12, Duhamel’s son with ex-wife Fergie. At 53, Duhamel is now a father of three — and clearly couldn’t be happier about it.

A Baby Girl He’s Been Counting Down to Meet

The anticipation had been building for months. Mari first shared the pregnancy news back in March, posting black-and-white maternity photos with the caption, “Adding a little girl to our story. We can’t wait to meet you.” Duhamel jumped into the comments almost immediately: “Can’t wait to meet that little cutie 💕 Love you momma.”

He wasn’t the only one celebrating. Fergie — who was married to Duhamel from 2009 to 2019 — also chimed in with a warm reply: “Welcome the cuteness! 💖💖.”

Ahead of the birth, Duhamel had been refreshingly candid about what becoming a girl dad meant to him. Speaking with Extra’s Derek Hough — himself a new dad — while promoting his comedy Preschool, he said simply: “I don’t know what to make of it. I’m just so — I cannot wait to meet her. And I think there’s something about dads and their little girls. It’s different, you know?”

“I’m Meant to Be a Dad”

Duhamel has been open for years about how much fatherhood defines him. Back in September 2023, before Shepherd was even born, he told SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show: “I get to do this again and hopefully again after that. Axl’s going to be a great older brother. Audra’s going to be a great mother, [I’m] very blessed. I’m jumping back in at this ripe old age. I’m doing it. To me, that’s what it’s about. I’m meant to be a dad.”

Parenting in his 50s hasn’t slowed him down either. Earlier this year he told Us Weekly he was “trying to stay as young and youthful as I can” — not just for his career, but “to stay as healthy and useful to chase my 1-year-old.”

He’s also been reflective about the specific challenges of being a working dad in Hollywood. While promoting the film London Calling last fall, he admitted: “I work a lot, and I often have a lot of guilt about not being there as often as I could be. But at the same time, you want your kid to look and see this is what you have to do to provide for your family. It’s a constant struggle in this business. It’s not easy.”

What does seem to come easily is the co-parenting setup he’s built. Duhamel has praised the dynamic between himself, Mari, and Fergie, saying simply: “We all have to work together to make sure that this thing works.”

Duhamel and Mari’s love story has a sweet origin — he recognized her as a fellow North Dakota native when they first met in 2019. They got engaged in January 2022 and married that September. Now, less than two years after welcoming Shepherd, they have a daughter to add to the mix.

Up next for Duhamel: he returns to the Netflix country drama Ransom Canyon for season two, which hits the streamer on July 23. Something tells us he’ll have a lot of happy news to talk about on the press tour.