"Pretty Woman" is due early next year; she is pregnant with twins

Julia Roberts is pregnant with twins and is due to give birth early next year, her spokeswoman says.

Roberts, 36, who won an Academy Award in 2001 for best actress in "Erin Brockovich," is married to cameraman Daniel Moder, 35. They wed in July 2002 and have homes in Taos, New Mexico, Venice, California and New York.

People magazine reported Roberts' pregnancy on its Web site on Monday night and spokeswoman Marcy Engelman confirmed the details on Tuesday.

Engelman said twins run in Roberts' family. Her great grandmother and a pair of cousins are twins, reuters.co.uk

According to BBC. co.uk they will be the first children for Roberts.

The announcement followed rumours that Roberts was pregnant two years ago, which turned out to be false.

"I think children fall into the category of the will of heaven, and I don't really have a timetable for that," Roberts said in 2002.

The latest speculation began after the actress was photographed on a beach in Italy, apparently with a bump.

The actress, who won an Oscar for Erin Brockovich, met cameraman Daniel Moder, 35, on the set of The Mexican in 2000. They tied the knot in a small ceremony on her New Mexico ranch July 4, 2002. It was the second marriage for both. Roberts spent 21 months wedded to country crooner Lyle Lovett before they called it quits in 1995. Moder was still was still married to makeup artist Vera Steinberg--his wife of five years--when he began dating Roberts.

The twins will be the first children for Roberts and Moder and were reportedly conceived through an $18,000 in vitro fertilization procedure, according to Star. Rumors that the actress had frequented a fertility clinic have circulated for the past couple of years, informs eonline.com