These 8 Famous Stars Were Pregnant While Filming Their Hit TV Shows

These 8 Famous Stars Were Pregnant While Filming Their Hit TV Shows

Celebrities normally keep their pregnancies and children 'out of the spotlight' from the fear of being overexposed. However, a few well-known actresses have managed to deftly hide their growing bellies while actively contributing to the set. Some even adapted to motherhood by incorporating the real-life situation into a powerful on-screen storyline. Here are a few famous actresses who were pregnant while filming their portions. 

1. Sarah Jessica Parker 

In the wildly popular HBO series Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker played the iconic character of Carrie Bradshaw. When the sitcom's fifth season was being filmed in 2002, Parker was expecting her son James Wilkie Broderick, whom she shares with her husband Matthew Broderick. To hide her pregnancy, the producers shortened the duration of the filming to just 13 episodes. Parker and Broderick became the surrogate parents of twins Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge in 2009, five years after the TV show ended. According to Oprah Daily, 2019, her firstborn son turned 17 and Parker wrote an emotional message on Instagram: “October 28th, 2002. The date that changed every breath we take and what we thought we knew love to mean. We watch you grow and capture life with admiration, pride, and profound love. So grateful someone captured our unbridled joy we recall so vividly those 17 years ago. Happy birthday beloved son James Wilkie.” 

2. Lisa Kudrow 

Lisa Kudrow's real-life pregnancy inspired Phoebe's surrogacy storyline in the famous sitcom Friends. As per ScreenRant, the plot was maintained throughout the series by the writers, who utilized the triplets as justification for Kudrow's advanced pregnancy. As a surrogate, Phoebe was depicted as carrying her brother's triplets in the show's season four. As per People, when the Friends cast filmed their reunion special in 2021, her son Julian was allowed to accompany them. "Afterward, he came up to me and said, "'Can I say that I'm really proud of you?' " Kudrow revealed during an appearance on Conan. "That was one of the very emotional things that happened to me."

3. Debra Messing 

Debra Messing was sidelined from NBC’s popular sitcom Will & Grace, Messing stayed away from filming the last four episodes. As per People, her spokesperson confirmed bed rest saying, the doctor “ordered her to be careful and take it easy, and preferably bed rest." Jennifer Lopez guest starred in the one-hour season finale since Messing was written out of those episodes. Producers attempted to conceal her pregnancy with oversized clothing and camera angles that minimized her stature, but most viewers were not deceived. On April 7, 2004, she and her ex-husband Daniel Zelman welcomed their son, Roman Walker.

4. Ellen Pompeo

Ellen Pompeo cleverly hid her pregnancy on the sets of the famed series Grey's Anatomy as part of the storyline. The plot where her character Meredith Grey gives part of her liver to her father is one of the most well-written storylines in the show. But, it was partially an incredibly inventive strategy to retain Pompeo while concealing the fact that she was expecting her first child in 2009. After giving her organ to her estranged father during season six, her character was placed on bed rest. This provided the showrunners flexibility and a little respite for Pompeo until Stella was born on September 15, 2009. Chris Ivery, Pompeo's spouse, essayed the role of her dad on the show. 

5. Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson famously hid her first pregnancy on the sci-fi drama series X-Files with the help of an unusual plotline. She essayed the role of FBI agent Scully in the hit show, the makers decided to change the storyline by showcasing her character being abducted by the aliens. As per Cheatsheet, Anderson said that her favorite part of filming was when the makers used footage of her actual belly to portray her abduction and the experiments aliens conducted on her: “Shooting the scene where Scully’s stomach is pumped with air in an abduction sequence and trying not to reveal that it was actually a pregnant belly being shot. I’ll have to show that scene to [daughter] Piper one of these years.” Her daughter Piper Maru Klotz was born in 1994. 

6. Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore announced her pregnancy in 2020, the This is Us actress filmed the fifth season of the program while carrying her child and because the COVID-19 epidemic was still at its worst, the crew had to take extra safety measures. Moore and her husband Taylor Goldsmith welcomed their first son, August "Gus" Harrison, on Feb. 20, 2021. Last year she exclusively told People that her son Gus enjoys being a big brother, “He's loving being a big brother and he is loving the holidays,” she shared. “Now, he's aware [of Christmas] in a way that he wasn't until this year, like last year, he was just sort of starting to grasp Christmas trees, but now he understands the concept of Santa and all of that it's so much more exciting," Moore said. 

7. Melissa Fumero

While Melissa Fumero played Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Amy Santiago, she became pregnant twice. Her first pregnancy was concealed using waist-up shots and the customary devious props; only her second pregnancy was included in the popular NBC series. "Enzo was born, like, five days after we wrapped. I don't recommend it," the actress told People in 2016. "My ankles would get really swollen," she continued. "It's hard to think about anything other than being pregnant when you're that pregnant," she explained about her experience, adding that it was difficult to remember lines and "what you're doing in the scene." Fumero and her husband David share sons Enzo, born in March 2016, and Axel, born in early 2020.

8. Jane Krakowski

In 2010, while filming 30 Rock, Jane Krakowski became pregnant with her son Bennett Robert Godley. As per People, she got great parenting advice from her co-star Tina Fey, "I think I was making my baby shower wish list in the makeup room of 30 Rock," she recalled. "I was like, 'A baby wipe warmer, that sounds amazing. Who wouldn't want a hot wipe on their butt?' "But Fey, who was expecting her second child at the time, "was like, 'No. Once you start doing hot baby wipes, you can never go back. Think about the day you're in a car where you cannot have the heated warmer, so don't do it.' " "I then took that off my list. She was very right," Krakowski said. In April 2011, Krakowski and her then-fiance Robert Godley welcomed a boy into the world.