Mel Gibson missed the birth of his new baby daughter because he was on the other side of the country when his girlfriend unexpectedly went into labour.
Oksana Grigorieva welcomed the couple's first child, Lucia, on 30 October (09) in Los Angeles, even though she wasn't due to give birth until December (09).
The singer/songwriter admits the timing took them both by surprise - because Gibson was filming in New York and she was home alone when she went into labour.
Grigorieva tells Britain's Hello magazine, "She was almost a month early. I was at home and then I got rushed to hospital, and then eight hours later, I could look at her beautiful face. It was fairly straightforward, as births go. It happened very quickly.
"He (Gibson) came a few hours later because he had to fly from New York... He is ecstatic. He is in love with her already. He's very hands-on. He has been very doting and nurturing."
Lucia is Gibson's eighth child - he has six sons and a daughter with estranged wife Robyn.
Grigorieva, 39, also has a son, Alexander, with her former boyfriend, actor Timothy Dalton.