Jeannie Mai Jenkins Is Pregnant, Expecting First Baby with Husband Jeezy After Miscarriage

George Kapetanakis

Jeannie Mai Jenkins is a soon-to-be mom!

The star, 42, is pregnant, expecting her first baby with musician husband Jeezy (born Jay Wayne Jenkins), she revealed on The Real talk show Monday, and in an interview with Women's Health. Jeezy is already dad to two children.

"I can definitely say that our Real fam is growing, and it's been really hard to keep all of these secrets for you guys because we've had so much to reveal here at the show, including the fact that I am pregnant!" the co-host said during the broadcast.

Mai Jenkins told Women's Health, "Jeezy and I have been kind of saving this and hiding this for five months. So we're relieved to finally share the news."

She also revealed that this news comes after a pregnancy loss: Mai Jenkins found out she was pregnant a month before her wedding to Jeezy, which was in March, and then suffered a miscarriage. They'd been trying for a baby since last year.

"I wondered if I was being punished. I wondered if I'd jinxed myself or cursed myself. My entire life, I never wanted children. When I say never, I'm talking a hard-stop never," she shared, adding, "Falling in love with Jeezy made me see life differently for myself. Our love is honest, pure and safe … something I hadn't felt as a child."

Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday? Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.

George Kapetanakis

RELATED GALLERY: Who's Due Next? Celebs Who Are Expecting

"Being a mom is hands down the hardest role in the entire world. Now that we're bringing another Jenkins into the picture. I have no idea what to expect," she says, adding of Jeezy, "He's an amazing dad, [and it] overwhelms me with even more love."

In April, Mai Jenkins opened up to PEOPLE about the couple's intimate, backyard ceremony — and the sentimental reason she threw her handwritten vows in the pool.

RELATED VIDEO: Jeannie Mai and Jeezy Launch Charity Wedding Registry in Support of Stop Asian Hate Movement

"I can't find anybody, whether it's God himself or the Bible, that would be able to say how I feel for Jay," Mai said of her new husband. "For Jay, he's a man of words. He's an artist, a songwriter, and he knows exactly how to describe what it feels to marry me. We knew right away that we wanted to write our vows. Jay didn't write down his vows, he spoke them from the heart."

George Kapetanakis

Unlike Jeezy, however, who "had no notes" and "was able to just tell me how he felt and shared with me his feelings right off his heart, right there in front of our close family friends," Mai said she wrote out three pages of vows.

"Everybody knows on The Real that I'm long-winded," she said at the time. "So my vows were on three pages and I read every word to him." After she "was done, I threw them into the pool because they've been sealed in his heart forever," added the Dancing with the Stars alum.