Tori Spelling's latest project: pregnancy.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 actress, 43, and Dean McDermott, 49, are currently expecting Baby No. 5. The couple, who recently celebrated 10 years of marriage, are the proud parents of Liam McDermott, 9, Stella McDermott, 8, Hattie McDermott, 5, and Finn McDermott, 4.
Dean also has a son, Jack McDermott, 18, with his ex-wife Mary Jo Eustace, 54.
"It was a total surprise," Tori tells People of her fifth pregnancy. "But we always wanted a big family. I'm really excited." (The interview appears in the magazine's Oct. 17 issue, out Friday.)
Tori—who confessed to Us Weekly in 2012 that her fourth pregnancy wasn't planned, either—can't believe she's expecting again. "I took the test, and Dean said, 'Oh my God, we're going to be the Brady Bunch!' He was saying, 'We just got Finn out of diapers! I thought we were in the clear!'" Tori recalls. "For the first time, they're all in school. So it's like, 'Wow, what did we just do to ourselves?' We're basically starting over."
Dean's extramarital affair nearly cost the couple their marriage in 2013. Through therapy, the couple worked past their issues, and now they're looking forward to adding a new member to the family. "This baby happened at the best time," Tori says. "Nothing is ever perfect, but I'm so madly in love with my husband and with our kids. The idea of adding to that is such a blessing."
"Everything is different now," she adds. "In a way, this is our first baby in our new relationship. And that is really exciting."
Overcoming their issues wasn't easy, of course.
"I can 100 percent move past the infidelity," Tori told E! News' Jason Kennedy and Maria Menounos earlier this year. "The stuff that I cannot move past is the behaviors in the relationship—the things that weren't being communicated, the anger in the relationship—things that really had nothing to do with infidelity itself." Though she sometimes questioned whether she was meant to go the distance with Dean, she decided the marriage was salvageable. "I think it's more powerful to make the choice to try to heal the relationship and work on it and work through it if you truly love someone."
Twenty weeks into her fourth pregnancy, Tori was diagnosed with placenta previa, in which the placenta covers the cervix and causes severe bleeding. She spent 10 weeks in the hospital and four months on bed rest. "I just remember thinking, I can't leave three children behind," she told Us Weekly in 2012. Three weeks after Finn's birth, she required emergency surgery after her C-section scars reopened. "When they put him in my arms I was like, 'We made it,''" the actress and reality star recalled. "We have an insane bond. We've been through hell and back."
So, when Tori learned she was expecting a fifth time, she was understandably nervous. "Once we found out I was pregnant, we didn't get excited until we knew I didn't have placenta previa again," she tells People. "With Finn, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. And we knew my life could potentially be in danger again. The thought of my four children not having a mother was not something we were OK with."
Dean adds, "Our doctor said this is a miracle baby."
Tori and Dean don't yet know the sex of the baby. For now, the mom-to-be's main concern is being a present parent to her four other children. "I know I should feel like, 'Oh, I'm old.' But I have more energy now," she insists. "It's not an option not to. And I'm so crazed running around with four little ones under 10 that I don't have time to worry about things I did the first time."