Former West Coast star Mitch Brown has revealed he and partner Lou Keck are expecting their first child together.
The couple made the news official on Instagram on Monday night, posting a short clip of them embracing and Brown kissing her baby bump as Keck showed off her positive pregnancy test.
The Eagles premiership winner captioned the post ‘something exciting coming October 2026’ with a white love-heart emoji.
Many of their followers wished them all the best online, with model Olivia Molly Rogers writing, ‘Omg yay! Congratulations!’
Brown – who made history as the first openly bisexual AFL player in August last year – already has two sons with his ex-wife, former professional netballer Shae Bolton-Brown.
They separated after 16 years of marriage but remain close.
Mitch Brown and his partner Lou Keck are pictured with their positive pregnancy test as they announced their baby joy on Instagram on Monday night
The former West Coast Eagle kissed Keck’s baby bump in the post, which was captioned ‘something exciting coming October 2026’
Keck and Brown were together when he made his historic announcement about his sexuality in August last year
Brown, 37, made the landmark announcement about his sexuality with the simple but historic words, ‘I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles and I’m a bisexual man.’
The former defender, who played 96 games for the club from 2007 to 2016, decided to come out just after the league was slammed for its handling of yet another instance of a player using a homophobic slur during a match, with Crows star Izak Rankine banned for four weeks as a result late last season.
He told The Daily Aus that the ‘hypermasculinity’ in AFL teams made bringing up his true self impossible.
‘In the locker room and in the spas, the chats were all geared around “Who did everyone pick up on the weekend?” Or, you know, “she’s pretty hot”,’ Brown said.
‘It was never once an opportunity to speak openly or explore your feelings or questions in a safe way.’
Shortly after his big reveal, Bolton-Brown said she ‘couldn’t be prouder’ of his historic move.
In a post to Instagram, she revealed how she met Brown when they were both teenage athletes and how they spent more than a decade building a life and making a family.
‘I for one couldn’t be prouder of Mitch and will celebrate his vulnerability loudly so hopefully those baby athletes currently playing in the AFL feel seen and safe and can be every little bit of their weird… and so our kids can too,’ she posted.
Brown already has two sons with his ex-wife, former netball star Shae Bolton-Brown (pictured together)
Brown’s brave reveal last year has now been followed by an AFL star coming out as gay in another first for the sport
Brown’s brave step has been followed by the news that another former AFL star has come out as gay in another first for the sport.
Former Brisbane Lion Leigh Ryswyk aired the revelation on Melbourne radio station Joy 94.9’s GayFL program last Wednesday, as he told the hosts his friends had known he was gay for five years.
‘To people who know me, my closest friends, this is not new. I’ve been out for five years now,’ Ryswyk told the radio program.
‘There will be people, though, if they do listen to this, it will be the first time they know about this.
‘I’m a very private person, so it’s not all over my social media and things like that.
‘It can be a bit of a shock to some people, they might not know, but that’s life, right?
‘In the end, the people who are nearest and closest to me know, and that’s what’s most important.’
When he was asked why he has chosen to come out now, the footballer said, ‘Why not?’
