Image caption Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks weighed in at 6lbs 1oz

Ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and her husband have become parents by a surrogate mother, her spokesman has said.

Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks was born on Wednesday, weighing 6lbs 1oz, at London's Portland private hospital.

The ex-News of the World editor and her husband, former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, spent years trying to conceive before using a surrogate.

In a statement they said their daughter was a "little miracle".

Mrs Brooks, 43, has been a powerful figure in the newspaper industry, working for Rupert Murdoch's News International for many years.

She was the editor of the News of the World (NoW) when voicemails on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone were listened to, but has always denied having had any knowledge that phone hacking was going on.

Mrs Brooks was arrested in July last year as part of a police investigation and has been released on bail until March.

She quit as News International chief executive in July as pressure over the phone-hacking scandal, which led to the closure of the NoW, mounted.

As Rebekah Wade, she took the editor's chair at the NoW in 2000, and at the time was the youngest editor of a British national newspaper.

She moved to edit the Sun in 2003.