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Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan announces new baby

NEW DELHI — Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has confirmed that he’s the father of a new baby amid feverish media speculation.

Talking to reporters at a news conference to promote the music from his latest film, Khan said late Wednesday that the news was “extremely personal.”

There’s been much speculation in Indian media over the last few weeks that Khan and his wife became parents to a baby boy via a surrogate and that the actor knew the baby’s gender ahead of the birth — an act that is illegal in India to prevent the practice of aborting female fetuses due to a cultural preference for sons.

Khan did not give any details Wednesday and did not mention the baby’s gender, but said he would share more publicly when the speculation settles down.

Khan said he wanted everyone, including government officials who are investigating whether he knew the baby’s gender before the birth, to work with the same “alacrity in finding out and doing the enthusiastic investigation they are doing upon my baby upon other things which they should be lending their thoughts to right now.”

“When the sad part gets over, I will share everything with you,” Khan said.

Khan and his wife have two other children, a son and a daughter, both in their teens.

The 47-year-old actor is busy promoting his latest film, “Chennai Express,” which is set to be released in August.

In 2011, actor Aamir Khan spoke openly about how he and his wife, filmmaker Kiran Rao, had struggled with fertility issues before they decided to have a baby using a gestational surrogate.

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