Gemma Arterton, 36, who was once unsure if she wanted children, caresses baby bump

She is the former Bond girl who once doubted whether she wanted children, but Gemma Arterton now appears to be pregnant.

The 36-year-old actress was spotted stroking her round belly while chatting with a friend in London’s bustling Soho district.

Wearing a tight black maternity top, leggings and a Burberry trench coat, she appeared cheerful as she patted the bump with her hand.

The St. Trinian actress, who laughed and joked with boyfriend Elliot Levey last week, is married to Irish actor Rory Keenan, who appeared in Peaky Blinders.

The couple married in a secret ceremony in County Wicklow in September 2019.

The daughter of a welder and a cleaner, Arterton grew up on a municipal estate in Kent and won a scholarship to train with Rada before starring in the 2008 Bond film Quantum Of Solace as seductive cop Strawberry Fields.

The actress, who has not yet officially announced her pregnancy, said in previous interviews that she was insecure about having children.

“I don’t think you can ever plan the right, exact time,” she told The Times in 2013.

“I don’t feel ready for kids because I want to know that I can come back and still be valuable to the industry. That’s only going to happen when I feel a little more accomplished. . . or at least when I’ve accomplished something I’m proud of.

Arterton revealed similar concerns about juggling children with careers in a 2018 interview with the Telegraph: “I’m a neurotic person and a worrier anyway, and I think, ‘Oh God, if I have kids, I’ll still be in be able to do all this?”

“When we were kids, my mother and grandmother didn’t work, and I think that made them sad. That influenced me.’

Arterton, who later wrote a fictional story about a Bond girl who rejected the spy’s advances, also said people were “threatened” by women who didn’t want children.

She declined to comment yesterday.