Did You Know? Actresses Who Really Were Pregnant On Set

Can you spot a real pregnancy from one made for TV? Between bumpy plot lines, some interesting wardrobe choices, and with the help of some distracting objects, these actresses were able to keep people in the dark about the fact that they were pregnant in real life.

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Jennifer Garner

Remember Sydney Bristow’s pregnancy in season five of Alias? At the time, Jennifer Garner was actually carrying her first child, Violet Affleck, and that pregnancy was written into the show. But that’s where Garner and Ben Affleck’s daughter’s screen time ended. Although Garner’s character had a daughter on the show, the little one was played by a child actress.

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Alyson Hannigan

Alyson Hannigan was on How I Met Your Mother during both of her pregnancies. Writers (and wardrobe) successfully hid her first pregnancy, but her second one perfectly lined up with her character’s pregnancy.

But Hannigan wasn’t the only How I Met Your Mother star who was pregnant on set. Check out both Hannigan and Cobie Smulders hiding their baby bumps during season five.

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Halle Berry

Everyone who watched X-Men: Days of Future Past probably noticed that Halle Berry’s screen time was dramatically cut. Unfortunately for Berry, there are only so many ways to hide a growing baby bump in a skin-tight costume. Fans were left with very few appearances from her beloved character Storm.

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Julie Bowen

You’re going to want to re-watch the pilot episode of Modern Family after seeing this one. If you look closely behind that box of cereal, you may be able to see that Julie Bowen was actually pregnant with twins during this episode!

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Jenna Fischer

Talk about some understanding bosses! Both of Fischer’s pregnancies were written into The Office. And just so her character wouldn’t feel like the only mom at Dunder Mifflin, the writers also included a baby as a plot arc for the character Angela during her second pregnancy.

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Kerry Washington

Olivia Pope may not have been impregnated on the show, but we all loved watching Kerry Washington play hide-the-baby-bump during season three of Scandal.

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Marcia Cross

Speaking of playing hide-the-baby-bump, Marcia Cross was pregnant during most of season three of Desperate Housewives, but none of us knew it because the wardrobe department covered it up! The baby bump we all saw her bump around with was actually a bit of padding, as her character’s pregnancy was written in after Cross gave birth to twins. Go figure.

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Sarah Jessica Parker

Patricia Field’s fashions were part of what made Sex and the City such a hit. But during season five of the show, they were a big part of giving us less to watch: namely, Sarah Jessica Parker’s baby bump. The fashion designer and costume designer for the hit show wrote in so many babydoll dresses and empire waistlines that SJP’s on-set pregnancy went mostly unnoticed.

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January Jones

Strategically placed laundry baskets and high waistlines aren’t the only ways writers hide baby bumps on set. Remember Betty Draper’s epic weight gain on season five of Mad Men? It was all a clever trick to cover up January Jones’ pregnancy! According to the star, she donned a fat suit after giving birth to cover up her own weight gain. She dropped the baby weight soon after.

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Julia Roberts

When actresses get pregnant while filming, plot lines can get complicated really quickly. Remember that scene in Ocean’s Twelve where Tess, played by Julia Roberts, pretended to actually be a pregnant Julia Roberts in order to help steal a Faberge egg? It was all an elaborate plot twist to give Tess an excuse to “pad her stomach” and to write in Roberts’ real-life bump. Confusing, right?

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Caterina Scorsone

Remember during season five of Private Practice when Amelia Shepherd was pregnant and her son died at birth? Shonda Rhimes wrote that story, and the tragic end of it, to accommodate Caterina Scorsone’s real-life pregnancy. Thankfully, the real story had a much happier ending: Scorscone’s daughter, Eliza, was born healthy and happy in 2012.

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Lisa Kudrow

Remember when Phoebe acted as a surrogate for her brother and his wife? That was Friends writers fitting Lisa Kudrow’s real-life pregnancy into the show. Kudrow didn’t have triplets like her character, but her son, Julian Murray, was born in 1998.

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Emily Deschanel

When it comes to TV pregnancies, sometimes life really does imitate art. When Bones star Emily Deschanel announced her pregnancy in 2011, writers wrote one for Dr. Temperance Brennan too. Deschanel said it was the script similarities that really caught her by surprise: “I’ll experience something in an episode, and I’m shocked because it’s exactly what I’m going through.”