Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova release first picture of newborn twins

Russian model and sportswoman Anna and the children's father, son of world-famous crooner Julio Iglesias, decided not to sell the exclusive rights to the first pictures of the babies to any media channel – but instead to share them with their faithful fans on Instagram as a thanks for their ongoing support and loyalty.

The non-identical twins were born in December and are still tiny, as shown in the picture of Enrique lying down with one of the babies next to his face.

Anna published another on Instagram at the same time, showing herself kissing the other baby.

They have not said which child is in which picture, but both the Miami-based parents have captioned their pictures with, “My ray of sunshine.”

Madrid-born Enrique's picture netted nearly a half a million 'likes' in the first hour – although this is unsurprising, given that he has 11.9 million followers on Instagram.

Between them, the couple – who kept their pregnancy secret until December 16, when their children were born – amassed over 6,000 'likes' in just three minutes.

Anna, 36, and Enrique, 42 have been together since 2001, but Lucy and Nicholas are their first children.

Moscow-born Anna retired from tennis in 2003 after winning two Grand Slam doubles, but Enrique – most famous among non-Spanish fans for his catchy number Bailamos – remains active in his career and launched his new single, El Baño, on Friday.