After struggling with fertility issues, Jayma Mays’ character in Glee – the wide-eyed, obsessive-compulsive guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury – gave birth to a baby boy during the musical comedy show’s fifth season.

Now Mays, 37, and her husband have welcomed a son of their own.

The TV star gave birth in August, but the baby’s arrival has only just been confirmed. E! News reports that Mays and her husband, the English actor Adam Campbell, have named their son Jude.

Jude was a relatively unpopular name for years, thanks to its association with biblical traitor Judas Iscariot and the tragic title character in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.

However, the popularity of Jude Law – as well as the classic Beatles song Hey Jude – have seen the name’s popularity rise in recent years. There were 2636 baby boys named Jude born in the States in 2015, according to the US Social Security Administration.

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Mays and Campbell met on the set of Epic Movie in 2007 and married soon after. Speaking about their relationship in 2013, Mays joked: “We played brother and sister, which is so incredibly sexy. We were very responsible, very professional, but that’s how we met.

“So we got to goof off, basically, every day together for three months and get to know each other really well. And then we started dating,” she explained.

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Mays’ Glee co-stars Heather Morris and Naya Rivera, who played cheerleaders Brittany and Santana, have also welcomed sons in the last couple of years. Morris gave birth to her second baby boy, Owen Bartlett Hubbell, in February 2016, while Rivera’s son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, was born in September 2015.

Images: Rex Features