All: Soaps & Real Life Pregnancies

[MissLlanviewPA]

Because a thread on fictional soap pregnancies would the longest one this forum has ever seen .

I thought this would a nice, fun thread to name actresses who, at one point or another, have been pregnant while on a soap, whether it was written into the show or not. You can include pictures, articles, whatever relates to the subject.

I had quite a few things say when I started this thread, but I accidentally deleted it twice and lost it all. So, for now, I'll just list a few names and write a few notes. I may add more to this later on.

Kassie DePaiva, OLTL--Pregnant with son J.Q. when Blair was pregnant with son Brendan (who was stillborn).

Fiona Hutchison, GL--Pregnant with second son Trevor when Jenna was pregnant with second son Rocky.

Kelly Ripa, AMC--Pregnant with son Michael while Hayley was NOWHERE NEAR pregnant (she gained around 70 lbs. during this time, which led to Hayley marrying Mateo in a hospital bed to cover Kelly's stomach), pregnant with daughter Lola later on (when Hayley had her son Enzo), pregnant with son Joaquin when she left AMC in 2002.

Melissa Reeves, DAYS--Pregnant with daughter Emily when Jen was pregnant with daughter Abby.

Lynn Herring, GH--Pregnant with son Hank--I assume during the Lucy miscarries Scott's baby story?--and pregnant with son Grady when Lucy carried Serena for Scott and Dom.

Bree Williamson, OLTL--Pregnant with son McGreggor (sp?) while Jessica was pregnant with son Ryder.

I'll add more to these later on. What are some you guys can think of?

[DRW50]

Denise Pence, GL - Pregnant with child while her character, Katie Parker, was not. The writers just said Katie was getting fat.

Jackie Zeman, GH - Pregnant twice when Bobbe could not have children. One time they hid her behind things, the other time they just said she was getting fat.

Liz Keifer, GL - Pregnant in real life, not on the show, and had to film S&M scenes when 6-7 months along.

Fran Myers Newman, GL - Pregnant in real life, not on the show

Kate Mulgrew, RH - Pregnant in real life, resulting in a sudden pregnancy on the show. Gave her child up for adoption in real life, had to play motherhood scenes in her last months on the show.

Erika Slezak, OLTL - Pregnant twice; I think one (Joey) was written in; the second time, she left and was temporarily replaced with Christine Jones

Robin Strasser. AW - Pregnant in real life when Rachel was pregnant with Jamie. Ran around the set in spite of pregnancy to film key scenes where Rachel told mortal enemy Alice that she was pregnant with Alice's fiancee's child. Fans told Robin they did not believe she was actually pregnant at that time, because no pregnant would could have run that fast.

[Juliajms]

That must have been incredibly hard on her.

[DRW50]

Noelle Beck, Loving - Pregnant in real life and on the show. Refused to play a story where Trisha had a stillbirth; temporarily replaced.

Patsy Pease, DAYS - Pregnant twice and both times stuck with "problem pregnancy" stories. The second involved her falling or being injured and losing the baby (I think); she refused to play that and was replaced. Later said she was sure this saved her baby's life.

Krista Allen, DAYS - Pregnant in real life, not on the show. Had to film very traumatic scenes at 8 or 9 months where Billie was forcibly injected with heroin and went through detox.

[DRW50]

Lauren Marie Taylor, LOVING - Pregnant in real life, one written in, one not. She worked up to the end both times and once went into labor while on set.

Mary Beth Evans, DAYS - Pregnant once or twice, I think one was written in. Said that some on the set refused to believe she was actually pregnant, with someone almost punching her in the stomach just to "prove" she was wearing padding!

Lisa Brown, GL and ATWT - Neither pregnancy was written in, I believe.

Mary Stuart, Search for Tomorrow - I think one of her pregnancies was written in, which was a soap first - footage of her in the hospital holding her real son was used on the show. Another was not, and her character married in Mary's last term, causing some shock when Mary wandered into a bridal store heavily pregnant.

[DRW50]

Lynn Herring - pregnant 2-3 times, GH wrote in at least one or two pregnancy. Had to play extremely emotional miscarriage scenes late in one of her pregnancies.

Maura West - pregnant 3-4 times. Only one, her first, was written into ATWT's script. Near the end of her pregnancy, had to play agonizing scenes where Carly had a stillbirth and buried her child. Carly was pregnant when Maura wasn't; when Maura was pregnant, Carly was written out in batsh!t ways.

Martha Byrne and Kelly Menighan Hensley - along with Maura, ATWT had the three of them kidnapped in an aging spa for the duration of their maternity leaves.

Ellen Dolan, ATWT - Pregnant in real life, not on the show. Character just left town for a while, I think.

Hillary B. Smith, ATWT - Had one or more children while on the show. Center of an odd plot where Margo fled to Greece so her husband wouldn't have to deal with her having her ex-boyfriend's child. Hillary B. Smith nearly left the show at this point and only returned when promised several things, such as her real life son playing her son on the show.

Lesli Kay, ATWT - Pregnant in real life, not reel life. Left comatose on the show.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I remember reading in the DAYS trivia book that her second pregnancy was considered high risk already, and that her doctor recommended a long leave of absence from the show because of this (and she was worried after the difficult pregnancy story she had the first time around). Luckily, her son (Russell) was born healthy.

One thing I should add about Kassie's pregnancy is that, because Brendan belonged to Patrick, Blair had scenes where she had to scream about how she didn't want him, so Kassie would always say something like "Mommy's just pretending" after she was done with the scene (it turned out that J.Q. had been deaf from conception and never heard any of that--he's had a cochlear implant for years now). She also had to play out Blair losing her son while she herself was around 8 1/2 months pregnant--the OLTL trivia book says part of the mattress she had to lay on was cut out to make her stomach look flatter. She has also stated that she was quite sick during her pregnancy, which may be part of the reason why she never had any more kids after J.Q. was born.

[DRW50]

Yes, I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated quite a bit of Blair's miscarriage story, and that was one of the reasons. I won't clutter up the thread by ranting on that again.

[P.J.]

Maura owns this topic. Of five pregnancies, only one was written in. The others went kidnapping, kidnapping, leaving town on the lam and rehab.

Conversely, all three of Martha Byrne's pregnancies resulted in children for Lily.

KMH's first pregnancy was written in, and Daniel was the result.

[Paul Raven]

Y&R

Jamie Lyn Bauer was pregnant in RL but Lorie Brooks was not.Lorie was sitting down a lot,the pregnancy was difficult and JLB was replaced by Victoria Thomson (ex Janice AW).

Melody Thomas Scott was pregnant with daughter Elizabeth at the same time as Nikki Newman was pregnant with Nicholas.

[DRW50]

I didn't know Jaime was replaced. I wish I could see the temp.

Lauralee Bell's pregnancies (Y&R, Christine) were a part of her phasing herself out of the show, and led to a year and a half or more absence, as part of the "rough sex" story with Paul which drove Christine out of town.

Genie Francis left GH in early 1997 to give birth. Laura was not pregnant. She did not return until spring 1998, with rumors that only threats of a lawsuit caused her to return.

Laura Koffman, OLTL - Pregnant in real life, not on the show. One of the most notorious real life pregnancies, as JFP fired her when she left for maternity leave.

[darraholic]

Alison Sweeney: First pregnancy was not written in. The show hired Dan Wells (Stan) to replace Sami during Ali's maternity leave. Ali's second pregnancy was written in and Sami was sent to the Safe House where she met Rafe.

Arianne Zucker: Nicole was pregnant then miscarried, then Arianne got pregnant in real life. The show had Nicole constantly snacking to make her weight gain seem realistic. The whole Sami vs Nicole showdown occured while Arianne was in her final months of pregnancy.

[SFK]

Carl, are you sure this thread wasn't your idea?

Susan Lucci, AMC - She was pregnant with Liza and Andeas while on the show, with Andreas when she played those infamous birth control pill scenes with Tom.

[Paul Raven]

Didn't Erica have some sort of breakdown during Susan's pregnancy that resulted in Erica being offscreen during Susan's maternity leave?

[Paul Raven]

Laura Malone was pregnant on AW at the same time as Blaine.She was replaced by Judy Dewey while on leave,She returned and was having difficulty losing weight after the birth.She was fired and Dewey took over.