Fair City star (33) reveals he and his partner are expecting baby number seven

Dubliner Gerard – who plays Steo Nash and whose character is at the centre of a love triangle between him, his best mate Greg Kiely and the mother of the baby Jess Mullen – is aged only 33.

He and partner Jo have a lovely family in the form of Jasper (9), Hugo (7), only girl River (5), Sage (3), Saint (2) and Zen (1), with another boy due in January.

“When I had my first child when I was 25 it was kind of a real shock to me, because I was used to going out every weekend and out with the lads and all that sort of thing,” he explains.

“I have to say having a child really settled me down, sort of ‘I need to work... I need to do this’.

“It makes you look at yourself and ask how I can relate to this character [in Fair City]. I’m not saying that I was a bad boy the way he was locked up, because I was never locked up in my life, but it was more so the realisation of having a baby.

“It makes you think ‘I better get my act together here’ and start providing and helping out and working as much as possible as I could. That’s what I try and do every single day.”

He adds: “Jo is great. She does everything for the kids when I’m not there – she brings them to school, then brings them home. She’s one of those school bus drivers, bringing them back and forth. She has been brilliant.”

Gerard hails from O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7, but he and his family now live in Jo’s home area of the Liberties.

He agrees his kids have unusual names.

“They are unusual names, especially the last four,” he smiles.

“I’m a very hands-on dad. The kids kind of keep me grounded. My passion was always acting but providing for them was number one, that was the main thing.”

Gerard studied acting in Bull Alley and did a lot of stage work before landing a part alongside Simon Delaney in the hit cartoon series Roy.

But having such a large young family meant he had to seek more secure work to pay the bills.

“I started off as an insurance broker and I’m now with my current company Payment Plus just over seven years,” he explains.

“I kind of fell into sales, it was something I was really good about, something I was passionate about. Kind of like helping people, giving them a helping hand, and providing them with a service.

Gerard used play soccer for the likes of Usher Celtic and Montpellier, but while he still tries to keep fit, he has his hands tied between work and his family.

“It’s not so much that Fair City is full time, about two days a week max. So, you can kind of work around it as well and Payment Plus have kindly given me time off,” he notes.

“It’s hard though to play the likes of soccer when you have such young kids as you try and spend time with them.”

Viewers have already seen Steo being visited in prison by Greg, and Gerard reveals he has first-hand experience of what it’s like in real life.

“I have actually gone into visit someone in prison, it was in Mountjoy,” he recalls. “The way they have the set with my character is very similar to what I found in real life, it’s very realistic.

“Obviously you have guards standing behind you and you can have a chat with the prisoner. I went in there with my dad years ago to visit someone and that was it.

“One of the things that stood out for most of the cast that were in Fair City was when we were doing the read through, one of the things they would say was ‘oh, how did they get a phone in prison?’, and you’d be told most prisoners actually have phones, which is strange to say but we all know they do.”

When Greg visited Steo in prison and told him Jess had said her fiance was not the father of the child, things began to make sense for the prisoner.

“That’s how Steo found out he’s the dad when he put his maths together,” he points out.

“The relationship with Greg and Steo is kind of on the rocks a bit. He’s his best mate. Jess is there in the middle, and she doesn’t know whether she likes Greg or Steo, so it’s a bit of back and forth.

“What I would say is that Greg is all Steo has in the show. He is kind of the one who can link him to his baby, so Steo treats that as number one – that’s the priority, you have to keep that relationship going no matter what it takes.

“Obviously there’s a few hiccups in between, but that’s his ticket to get to see the child and look to maybe get back with Jess.

“It’s one of those things – the story could go anywhere and that’s what’s exciting about it.

“I think something will have to give and Jess will have to choose one of us. Steo might be hoping she chooses him, and he then thinks he could turn his life around and stop being a bad boy.”

He raves about how he’s been treated on set.

“I have to say absolutely everybody has been brilliant since I’ve arrived,” he beams.

“Obviously I’ve been a little closer to the actors I’ve seen on a daily basis.

“The Mullen family have made me feel really welcome and then Shane [Greg] is originally from Cabra and I know his older brother, so that’s a bit of a link.

“It’s a close-knit family in there where everyone looks out for each other.”