Rabbitohs centre Braidon Burns expecting baby with Tiannan Pennini

Weeks after announcing his engagement, Rabbitohs centre Braidon Burns has revealed he is expecting a baby boy.

There is a Rabbitohs bub on the way.

Rugby league centre Braidon Burns and fiance Tiannan Pennini will become parents for the first time with news they are expecting a baby boy.

“I am extremely thankful,” Burns told Confidential.

“In such a sh*t time for everyone, we have had such a great few months. I have such a strong and beautiful woman and I can’t wait to see her become a mother. I’ve wanted kids from a young age, I know I’m ready and can’t wait to embrace the challenges that come with it.”

The announcement from the pair.

The couple announced the exciting news at the weekend on social media, revealing the baby’s gender.

“Little fulla going to have some loonnnggg ass legs,’ Burns said in his post.

In hers, Pennini said “Baby Burns” would be arriving in 2022.

Among those to send congratulations were footballers Cody Walker and John Sutton.

The news comes just a few weeks after Confidential revealed Burns and Pennini are engaged.

Burns earlier this month got down on one knee at sunset on Coolangatta Beach to pop the question.

Braidon Burns after his proposal to partner Tiannan Pennini. Picture: Sunny Brar

A little Rabbitohs bub on the way.

“She teamed up a bit so it made me have a few tears,” he said at the time. “I am a pretty emotional guy so it is easy to get me. She didn’t actually say yes straight away, she jumped around and got a bit emotional and then came in and kissed me so I took that as a yes.”

Burns, 25, had been planning the proposal for several months, working with jewellery designer Sam Rahme from Sydney’s Affinity Diamonds to create the one-off two carat sparkler.

Pennini, who is a year off finishing her studies to become a registered nurse, spent two weeks in hotel quarantine so she could be with Burns in the NRL Queensland hub.

“We have been together for two years and four or five months but met two years before that,” Burns explained. “My aunty got us together. We went on a date and that was the end of it.”

Burns has in the past spoken of his difficult childhood and said Pennini had helped him through the toughest of times.

As a child growing up in Coonamble, Burns, the son of long-time drug users found his mum overdosed in a car on the family driveway — unconscious, and with a needle hanging from her forearm. His father has spent time in jail for a number of offences.

Burns spent much of his young life seeking out, and eventually finding, strong male role models – such as Wallabies great Marty Roebuck.

He has also had experience in being a father figure and role model himself.

With his father in jail and mother in recovery when Burns’ grandmother Gail, the closest person in his life, died in March 2019, he became the unofficial guardian of his younger brother, Dray.

“You have got to take the good with the bad and make the best of it and that is what I have sort of done with my life,” he said. “I have found a good girl and she has got me through some tough times in the last couple of years.”

They are holding off on setting a date or making any proper wedding plans due to Covid.

“We are both really quiet people, we sort of stick to ourselves so I don’t think it will be a really big out there wedding,” Burns explained. “But I guess I will see what she wants because that is the most important thing.”