"Oasis Star Toasts His Baby Anais"

by Adam Sherwin

Noel Gallagher admitted bursting into tears yesterday when his wife, Meg Mathews, gave birth to their daughter. But the Oasis star quickly regained his composure to repair to a nearby pub for a pint of Guinness.

Ms Mathews meanwhile celebrated with champagne at London's Portland Hospital, where she remained overnight. Gallagher hopes that she will be discharged in time to accompany him to Mike Tyson's fight in Manchester tomorrow. He said: "I'm really proud of Meg. She looks fantastic - like she has just been shopping. A girl is what I was hoping for, as I have never had a sister."

The baby, who weighed in at 7lb 2oz, is to be called Anaïs, after the French writer Anaïs Nin, who is apparently Ms Mathews's favourite author. Gallagher, who had threatened to call the child Fanny, seemed a little confused about his daughter's namesake, describing her as "the French writer from the 17th century . . . 19th century, I stand corrected".

In fact, Nin lived from 1903 to 1977, and was a leading figure of "new feminisim", publishing a series of avant-garde erotic novels, including A Spy in the House of Love, and diaries of her affair with the author Henry Miller.

If he is not at home with French literature, the songwriter does have some experience of babies - his brother Liam and his wife Patsy Kensit have a five-month-old son, Lennon - but he had expressed reluctance to attend the birth, fearing that it would be "Exorcist material". Afterwards, he said: "I'm still shaking. I thought there was going to be lots of screaming and shouting all the way through, but there wasn't."

Liam was reported to have been "shouting and shouting down the phone with happiness" at news of the latest birth and he said last night that he would be visiting his niece in the next couple of days.

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c 2000 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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