So secretive! Hallmark stars Chris McNally and Julie Gonzalo have kept their romance quiet over the years, so fans were shocked when the couple announced that they welcomed a baby.
“Our hearts are full,” the Supergirl actress captioned a photo of their newborn grabbing both parents’ fingertips on Sunday, June 5. “Welcome baby M 
.”
Prior to their surprise baby news, McNally only acknowledged that he had a girlfriend without naming her publicly. However, eagle-eyed followers spotted the same dogs in both Gonzalo and the When Calls the Heart actor‘s Instagram snaps.
“I am mostly focusing on the puppies. My girlfriend and I each adopted a puppy, so I’m looking forward to being home with them when I can,” he told My Devotional Thoughts in January 2019. “I want to spend some time molding them and training them because they’re still relatively new to the world. But they are growing up fast.”
Their pit bull-husky mixes are called Charlie and Bowie, and the couple love to take the pups on nature walks. The two spend as much time as they can in the great outdoors.
McNally told the Los Angeles Times in May 2019 that he “resets in nature” whenever he can get out of the city (he splits time between Vancouver and Los Angeles). The Canada native takes his love and their dogs out into the wilderness in a collapsible tent with a mattress that can sleep up to four people.
“The dogs always take up a ton of room, so I knew that space was our first priority,” the Altered Carbon star said.
He opened up about his relationship later that month when he revealed how he romanced Gonzalo with his dance moves after learning choreography on Hallmark’s A Winter Princess. “I waltzed her around the living room,” he revealed to North Shore News the same month. “But she’s south American so now she wants me to learn to Salsa.“
Noting her native country clued fans into the idea that the Rocky Mountain Country actor was dating the Veronica Mars alum, who lived in Buenos Aries until she was 8. She spent the rest of her childhood in Miami.
The pair first connected on the set of Hallmark’s The Sweetest Heart, where they played high school sweethearts who find their way back to each other. “The first day we met, it was our camera and our make-up and hair testing. We had chatted and he was busy that weekend doing a play,” Gonzalo told FanSided in March 2018 while promoting the TV movie.
Since they were playing people with a long history, the leading lady wanted to get to know McNally to help make their relationship believable. “At the end of the day, chemistry is about feeling good about the person you’re with and knowing their energy,” the Buenos Aires-born star explained at the time. “So we took the time to just kind of chat and talk and get to know each other as much as we could in the little time that we had. And then throughout the film, we were able to get together after work and read some lines.”
Clearly, the chemistry carried over offscreen. In 2019, McNally even said he was “open” to a sequel to The Sweetest Heart if the network was interested.
In 2019, McNally got flustered when Entertainment Tonight asked for his most romantic gesture. “I decorated the apartment for us? We’re kind of backwards. Yeah, she let’s me — that’s not really romantic though. I don’t know.”
Though he said he doesn’t steal moves from romantic Hallmark movies, it seems like he’s doing something right.
Scroll down for a look at Gonzalo and McNally’s relationship timeline:
