Movie star Tom Cruise and his fiancée, actress Katie Holmes, are expecting a baby six months into a whirlwind romance that has turned the once intensely private Cruise into a giddy and very public lover.

News of the pregnancy was first reported by People magazine on Wednesday. A statement from Cruise’s publicist, his sister Lee Anne DeVette, added: “Tom and Katie are very excited, and the entire family is very excited.” Holmes, she said, “has never felt better.” No wedding date for the couple has been set and no details about the sex of the baby or the due date were available. The baby would be Cruise’s first biological child. He adopted two children with actress Nicole Kidman before their marriage ended in divorce in 2001.

Twice-married Cruise, 43, and Holmes, 27, began dating in mid-April, but far from keeping their relationship low key, Cruise became the butt of jokes in May after his manic, couch-jumping appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” declaring his passion for his new girlfriend. He proposed to Holmes in June at the Eiffel Tower in Paris and announced their engagement the next day at a news conference.

The high jinks prompted suspicion that their relationship was a publicity stunt to promote their summer films – “War of the Worlds” for Cruise and “Batman Begins” for Holmes. Cruise rejected the jibes.