January 27, 2011 – Oscar-winning Spanish film stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have had their first child, a healthy baby boy, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

“Penelope and Javier welcomed their first son into their family last week. Both parents and baby are doing great,” said the spokeswoman for Cruz, confirming Spanish press reports.

Cruz gave birth at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills on Saturday, according to the latest edition of the Spanish celebrity magazine Hola!

It published pictures of a beaming Bardem and family members of Cruz at the center, the hospital of choice for Hollywood stars. But it gave no details on the boy’s name or his birth weight.

Spokespeople for Cruz and Bardem had so far refused to comment on the Spanish press reports since they emerged Tuesday.

The birth came just three days before Bardem received his third Academy Award nomination, for his performance in the film “Biutiful” by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Cruz, 36, and Bardem, 41, met when they starred opposite each other as lusty teens in the Spanish film “Jamon, Jamon,” back in 1992.

In 2008, they were back together on the silver screen in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” for which Cruz won an Academy Award as best supporting actress.

The couple married in July last year at a ceremony in the Bahamas.

Bardem, also nominated for an Oscar in “Before Night Falls” (2000), won an Academy Award in 2007 for his role in “No Country for Old Men.”

Spain’s leading daily, El Pais, quoted a family source as saying “the couple want to have as much privacy as possible.”

“Friends of Bardem began to suspect (the baby was born) when the actor did not respond to any calls to congratulate him on his (Oscar) nomination,” it added.

Bardem changed his work schedule to be at his wife’s side for the birth, the paper said.

Hola! said Cruz’s mother, Encarna, sister Monica — also an actress — and her brother Eduardo were at Cedars-Sinai for the birth.

Bardem’s mother, well-known Spanish actress Pilar Bardem, traveled from Madrid on Monday to meet her grandson, according to the magazine.

The actors had kept their romance quiet for years, but Bardem got personal when he won a best actor award at the Cannes film festival in May for his role in “Biutiful.”

“I share the joy of this prize with my friend, my companion, my love, Penelope Cruz,” Bardem said at the time.

“I owe you so much, and I love you very much,” he added, drawing tears from Cruz, a longtime muse of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.