Pregnant Gwen looks ready to pop as she steps out in style with protective Gavin

Gavin Rossdale was playing the protective husband yesterday when he and heavily pregnant wife Gwen Stefani were spotted out and about in Los Angeles.

It seemed that he was making an attempt to hide her from view of waiting photographers, but at nearly nine months pregnant, the usually svelte singer was near-impossible to miss.

Never one to let her lose her cool in the style stakes, Stefani was ever photo-ready, dressed in a chic stripy top, white-framed sunglasses, and of course her signature red lippy.

Parents-to-be: Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani

The couple are expecting the birth of their second child any day now. They are already parents to Kingston James, two.

Gavin revealed in a recent interview that he and Gwen have chosen not to find out the sex of the baby.

'We're into the surprise element. Plus we are going to put him in a black room.

'He'll be a goth baby so it doesn't matter if it is a girl or a boy.'

It emerged in 2004 that Rossdale also has a love child, London party girl Daisy Lowe, after a fling in the 80's with Pearl Lowe.

Due any day: Gwen has remained stylish throughout her pregnancy