“Insecure's ”Jay Ellis Is Both ‘Terrified’ and 'Excited’ About Baby No. 2: 'Chaos All Over Again’ (Exclusive)
Ellis’ wife, Nina Senicar, confirmed earlier this year that the couple is expecting their second baby together
Jay Ellis is opening up about parenthood jitters.
Speaking with PEOPLE at a pre-publication event for his new memoir, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me?), the Top Gun: Maverick actor, 42, shared that he is feeling an abundance of emotions about soon becoming a second-time parent with wife Nina Senicar, 38.
“I'm terrified,” Elliis admits. “One kid was crazy. Two kids, come on, man. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm very excited. I think two is enough. It's where it ends…I think I finally achieved some version of calm in my house and now it's about to be chaos all over again.”
Ellis and Senicar are already parents to daughter Nora Grace, 4. Senicar confirmed in a March 2 Instagram post that the couple is expecting their second child.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
"And just like that… Baby Nr. 2 loading! 🤯🤎," the Deadline actress wrote.
Ellis said that despite everything, he is still prepared to face the “chaos.”
“What is life if we're not experiencing chaos and figuring out how to navigate it?” he says. “I get the opportunity to bring another kid into the world and hopefully do something good, do some good, leave them with something good. Hopefully, they get to move through the world with some of the things that I'm able to teach them and do some good themselves.”
The couple dated for five years before Ellis proposed to Senicar during a trip to Bali in January 2019. They later tied the knot on July 9, 2022, after postponing the wedding ceremony twice during the coronavirus pandemic.
Senicar showed off her baby bump earlier this year at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party when she walked the red carpet with Ellis at her side.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Ellis' memoir, which will be published on July 30, sees the Insecure actor reflecting on being part of a military family in the ‘90s, and his deep bond with Mikey, his beloved childhood imaginary friend. The actor told PEOPLE that shifting gears from film to writing came with some challenges.
“I think there's a vulnerability thing, too, that I didn't clock,” he tells PEOPLE. “I was going to have to open up in a way where it was me opening up versus me performing a character who's opening up.”
Even with its challenges, writing his memoir, Ellis says, helped him to better understand his own multitudes.
“There's so many little things that make us who we are,” Ellis says. “I don't think I really realized how much so many things influenced who I am today until I wrote the book.”
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.