celebrity

Sophie Delezio is pregnant and her fiancé wins for the best Instagram announcement.

Sophie Delezio has announced she is expecting a baby with her fiance Joseph Salerno... and now we all feel very old.

The keynote speaker — who first captured the hearts of people around the country as a toddler when she was involved in an accident in 2003 — told followers she and her husband are expecting "the greatest gift of all in September".

The 23-year-old shared four photos to reveal her pregnancy, possibly saving the best for last... One showing Joseph holding his own (er, non-pregnant) belly to announce the news!

Sophie and her childhood best friend, Joseph, got engaged on Valentine's Day in 2023. The pair met when they were in grade 9, at 14 years old.

"We have both been tested by life and challenged in so many ways. We haven't always been directly in each other's lives, but somehow fate has always brought us back together," she wrote for Mamamia following her whirlwind engagement.

ADVERTISEMENT

"The difficult times we have been through make us both so keen to hold on to the love and joy, as we know how important it is. Calling him my fiancé is the world's greatest honour," she continued, adding that the couple plan to marry later this year. 

"A man who knows me better than I know myself. Who cares for me, loves me, and has chosen to spend the rest of his life with me. He did his own research, found the perfect wedding venue, and reserved the best day in the best season in 2024 for us to get married."

In 2003, millions of Australians learned of then-two-year-old Sophie, who suffered burns to 85 per cent of her body after she became trapped under a vehicle that had crashed into the Roundhouse Childcare Centre in New South Wales and caught fire.

She lost both her legs below the knee, her right hand and ear.

Then, three years later, in May 2006, Sophie was hit by a car as her nanny pushed her wheelchair across the road near her home in Sydney's northern beaches. The car threw her 18 metres from her wheelchair, and her resulting injuries included a broken jaw, broken ribs, fractured collarbone and a punctured lung, as well as bleeding on her brain and a heart attack.

She was released from hospital a month later, and had returned to school by July that year.

Now aged 23, she told Woman's Day that she has never let the accidents define her, or prevent her from achieving her ambitions, one of which was studying abroad.  

"In my mind I'm not 'Sophie the girl with no legs' but someone completely normal," she said. 

"I think of myself as Sophie the chatterbox, the socialite, the girl who loves a good hamburger and enjoys each day as much as she can."

Feature Image: Instagram @soph.delezio.

We want to hear from you! Help us shape what you read, watch & listen to on Mamamia. Share your thoughts in the below survey. PLUS as a token of our appreciation…you’ll go in the running to win a $100 gift voucher!