HOCKEY couple Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh have announced they are expecting their first baby.

The pair were the first ever married gay couple to compete together at the Olympic games where they helped to win Team GB its first women’s hockey gold in Rio in 2016.

Speaking at Roedean school, they shared the exciting news that Helen, 38, is pregnant with their first baby due before the end of the year.

Helen described the news as “our next big adventure”.

Now retired from competing, the couple give talks to students about their plan to have a family in the hope of overcoming taboos about same-sex relationships.

They told The Sunday Times: “We have felt a wealth of positive energy from people who support our relationship for what it is: love.

“If we are teaching young people about relationships, we should be giving them a broad view of the world.”

Kate, 39, has spoken previously about feeling lucky to be a high-profile same-sex couple with incredibly supportive families and hockey teammates.

She said: “I know there are people who have been shunned and locked out of their homes.

“We want to say there a place for you where you can feel comfortable in your own skin, whatever that is.

“We know that we are creating history.

“Being a same-sex couple is something different and it it good that people are talking about it because same-sex marriage and LGBT issues are still a little bit taboo - so the more we can normalise it and talk about it the better.”

The pair met as teenagers before becoming a couple in 2008. They then married in a civil ceremony in 2013.

Kate, who has 375 caps for her country, led Great Britain to a nerve-shredding triumph over the Netherlands at the Rio Olympics as the team’s captain.

Kate and Helen have spoken about the “really special” moment they were awarded an OBE and MBE respectively at Buckingham Palace in February, 2017.

Kate, who was engaged to a former England hockey men’s captain before she entered a relationship with Helen, said: “When I was at school and thinking of what I might be one day, this was nowhere near my radar.

“I wanted to be a PE teacher and I would have been quite happy with that but this is like being in a movie.

“It is quite bizarre.

“It is like what dreams are made of.

“I think it does show that, with hard work and if you really go for it, these things can happen to you.

“It was also so special to have this opportunity and see my wife have this recognition after having stood with her on the podium in Rio.”

The couple will be Roedean’s Sports Ambassadors for the next two years.

This announcement coincides with the launch of the new floodlit all-weather pitch.

A spokeswoman said: “Roedean is remarkably fortunate to have Sports Ambassadors of the calibre and pedigree of Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh, and to be working with two iconic GB sporting heroes.”