15 Pregnancies In TV Shows They're Hiding From You

It is never really a secret for a long when an actress becomes pregnant. Sure, she may try to hide it for as long as humanly possible, but the good news usually gets out super fast. So what happens when said actress is starring on a hit TV show? Does the character become pregnant, too? Well, sometimes… but as you probably already know, not always. Because that would be kind of ridiculous. Way too many characters would be expecting if that happened. But did you know that in a lot of cases, the pregnancy is totally and completely hidden from you? You might never even know… but in some cases, you totally guess, because there are some telltale signs that this is happening.

Here are 15 pregnancies in TV shows that have been hidden from you. If you had no idea about some of these, it might be a surprise.

15 'How I Met Your Mother'

Did you know that two actresses were expecting when they starred on the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother? Well, now you do. You might have heard that Alyson Hannigan was pregnant for a while but it was hidden from the audience. Then, almost ASAP, Colbie Smulders said that, oh yeah, she was totally expecting, too. Sure, the show hid this from you by having the characters carry a whole lot of purses, which is a common trick. But according to a piece in the Chicago Tribune, Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy was joked at in the show itself. The actress sometimes was in a scene with a basketball or globe (aka something that echoed her pregnant stomach) and she even joked about having a food baby (which, of course, was an actual baby in her stomach). So if you didn't realize that this was happening, you might be pretty surprised.

14 'Seinfeld'

Did you know that Elaine, aka Julia Louis-Dreyfus, was pregnant while filming the beloved 90s sitcom? Maybe not, since you were probably way too long to actually watch the show while it was actually on the air, and you've watched it on streaming services or DVDs since. But yes, Julia was totally pregnant, and as you probably know, her character never had a baby. Elaine could barely tolerate a boyfriend enough to let him stick around, let alone get her pregnant, right? If you dump a guy because he didn't write an exclamation point when writing down a phone message, well, you might not be ready to have a baby. Just saying. Julia told Vulture.com, "I was the size of a whale, so that was tricky too. My first pregnancy we sort of tried to cover it up and I would carry boxes and walk around with, you know, things on hangers in front of me and things like that. But by the time I was pregnant the second time it was like, ugh, we just gave up. I just started to be fat."

13 'Frasier'

This sitcom from way back is nostalgic for a lot of us, and we might not even remember that there was a hidden pregnancy… if we even knew that at all. The character Daphne Moon gained a whole bunch of weight in one storyline, and you might have thought that was just a funny thing that the writers dreamed up. Well, yes and no. That plot came from the fact that the actress Jane Leeves got pregnant. So now you know the truth: some storylines are literally born from babies who are, well, about to be born. There's a certain poetry about that, don't you think? The craziest thing, though, is that the character even went to what is usually called fat camp (and is a really awful name, we have to be honest). You know, to really drive the point home. In case you didn't get that the character gained weight.

12 'Once Upon A Time'

You may not have known that Ginnifer Goodwin was pregnant while starring on the fantasy fairy tale drama. That's because she was literally wearing a massive, massive cape. You probably didn't even break a sweat or bat an eyelash since hey, it's a show about people who essentially wear costumes in every single scene. So a cape or something like that would definitely not be out of place. Really, this is the best kind of show to star on when you're pregnant. You can hide it in so many different ways. Just think of the glorious and brilliant wardrobe choices. The writers and producers must have breathed a huge sigh of relief since this was one pregnancy that was definitely easy to cover up. Other writers were probably pretty jealous of this situation, that's for sure. Now you're probably thinking that every female on that show was pregnant, right? Well, maybe… But we'll never know for sure.

11 'Homeland'

You may not love every season of this political drama and a lot of fans aren't sure if they even wanted to keep watching past a certain season. But you definitely thought that the way they covered up pregnancies was kind of strange. Apparently, the show actually hired body doubles. Well, that's a new one. Star Morena Baccarin was pregnant while filming, so what did they do? They used a body double… and they relied on technology to make sure it looked like she wasn't pregnant at all. Hmmm. We're not really sure what to say about that. At least the show could go on, right? The actress has said in interviews that she was super nervous to tell the crew that she was expecting because she wasn't sure it would go over super well. Sounds like a stressful situation… but really, we don't think that body doubles should be used. We get it, people get pregnant. But they should carry purses or hide behind furniture like always.

10 'The Americans'

When Keri Russell got pregnant while still filming the popular political thriller The Americans, the crew took a super practical approach: they put her in coats. Well, that makes sense. And that would not even be super obvious on a show like this one since Keri's character spends a whole lot of time undercover. So she could just be undercover… while wearing coats. Sounds legit to us. But still, it kind of throws you for a loop as a viewer when you realize that a character is wearing one kind of clothing item… in every single episode. You start to wonder if you're going a bit crazy or if this is really happening, and then when you learn later on that, oh, the star was actually expecting a baby at the time, it all starts to make a whole lot more sense. Isn't information a wonderful thing?! We think so.

9 'Will And Grace'

Debra Messing was pregnant while filming this beloved sitcom, and apparently it was super obvious since the character was known for wearing form-fitting clothing. So what did they do? They actually filmed four episodes without the actress. Well, that's one way to go about it, we guess. We can't imagine Will And Grace without Grace. She's honestly half the show. There really can't be a show without her. But this happened near the end of the sixth season, so maybe they figured that fans would stick around since they had loved the show for so long up until then. And really, it's not like you're going to suddenly hate a TV show and totally boycott it just because they made a creative decision like this. It just seems like a strange thing to do since it would make it really obvious to the audience that something was out of the ordinary which is the opposite of what you want in this kind of situation.

8 'House Of Lies'

As you know, Kristen Bell has two adorable babies with her equally adorable husband, fellow actor Dax Shepard. They are pretty much the definition of #relationshipgoals (but actually… the term came into existence because of these two) and they make everyone swoon with their every look, move and tweet. But both of her pregnancies happened when she was filming the dark comedy House Of Lies. The show handled the second one by making the character expecting too, which is really the easiest way to go (but not the way that they usually go, as you can tell from the other examples on this very list). But the first pregnancy? Kristen's character was holding a whole lot of purses and briefcases in front of her stomach. In a lot of scenes. This is a really classic cover-up and it always works, even if it becomes kind of suspicious once you're aware of it.

7 'Mad Men'

When January Jones got pregnant, the writers of Mad Men didn't seem to break a sweat (well, at least not that we know). They just decided that her character Betty Draper would gain a ton of weight. Which is a strategy that we have seen elsewhere (and is explained elsewhere on this very list). It's pretty smart since, of course, you do gain a bit of weight when you're expecting a baby and, you know, bringing a new lovely life into the world. So why not just admit that you're a bit bigger than you were before and simply write it into the script? Works for us. But to be honest, we did think this was a bit of a weird storyline since we weren't really sure that Betty would be okay with not looking too good and gaining too much weight. It just didn't really seem realistic. But hey, we love the show so we just moved on.

6 'The X-Files'

If you haven't seen this eerie show from way back when you probably have at least heard of it. And you've at least heard of the super anticipated revival series that recently aired. But whether or not you're a super fan of this super creepy show, you know the main characters, Scully and Mulder. The actress behind Scully, Gillian Anderson, got pregnant during the course of the show. So what did they do? Have her abducted, of course. Makes total sense. Well, actually, it does, since it's a creepy, supernatural show. It must be pretty easy to write this kind of thing into the script when you're working on a show where literally anything and everything can happen and it still makes sense within the show's worldview. So chances are, viewers would really have no clue that this was even happening. It would just be another thrilling episode.

5 'Sex and the City'

Carrie Bradshaw was, of course, always the most fashionable character on TV while Sex and the City was on the air. That just goes without saying. But Sarah Jessica Parker, aka the woman behind the fashionista, was also expecting a baby in the fifth season of the beloved show. So what did they do? Well, naturally, they focused on wardrobe. Which isn't super surprising considering how big of a role Carrie's clothes played in the entire show. But what is shocking? That would be the clothes that Carrie ended up wearing: babydoll dresses and dresses with empire waists. Um, yeah. Really. Would Carrie ever dress like that? We don't think so. We really don't. After all, this is a woman who wore such skimpy dresses in the first season that it seemed like she was literally wearing a slip outdoors. We don't think that baggy clothes were in her fashion vocabulary.

4 'Modern Family'

How did the writers and producers of this popular family sitcom act like Julie Bowen's character Claire wasn't expecting? It wasn't a super inventive idea. It wasn't even all that complicated. She literally sat on a couch a pillow in front of her. Which makes sense since that is a really smart (although super obvious) strategy and of course it worked, since you had no idea. But the weird thing is that she was basically holding onto that pillow for dear life… which kind of gave it away. This happened during the show's pilot, since Julie was about to give birth to her adorable twins at that point in time, so it was definitely bad timing but hey, what can you do? At least we have her comedic genius on this show because she really is such an important part of this hilarious piece of entertainment and we couldn't imagine it without her.

3 'Grey's Anatomy'

We have to be totally honest, this one shocked us. We didn't know that Ellen Pompeo was pregnant while filming Grey's Anatomy… maybe because the drama is often focused on the characters on this show instead of the actresses and actors who portray them (with a few really awful exceptions). But yes, the woman behind the beloved character Meredith Grey was definitely expecting. Back in season six, Meredith donated a section of her liver. Yeah, you thought that was just her being really sweet and charitable. But you would be dead wrong. This was a storyline so Ellen could hide her growing belly. Hmmm. Now we're wondering how many storylines on TV shows have been totally and completely altered thanks to pregnant stars. Have you noticed that another character this season is pregnant as well, although maybe it's just us who started noticing after this article, but Caterina Scorsone, who plays Amelia seems very pregnant in the show (with her purse and lab coat always covering her). We have a feeling though they will work this into her character's storyline since Amelia and Owen are talking about having babies.

2 'Gossip Girl'

Of all the hidden pregnancies on television shows, we have to say that Kelly Rutherford's pregnancy is up there for being absolutely hilarious. Well, her pregnancy is not hilarious, of course, but the way that it was covered up is… because it fit so well for the show and the character. Brilliant. While she starred on the second season of the super popular teen show Gossip Girl, she was actually pregnant. So what did the producers do? They had the actress wear a ton of stuff that supposedly covered it up. For one thing, she carried absolutely insanely huge bags. Which is pretty smart when you think about it since the character would definitely favor big bags. It is like the bigger your purse, the cooler/wealthier/more amazing you are. It is seriously some fashion math or something. For another thing, Kelly wore really big jackets and sweaters. Perfection. This one was thankfully an easy coverup.

1 'Scandal'

This is one hidden pregnancy on a TV show that is not that hidden after all since we all know about Kerry Washington's pregnancies. She's such a big star now, and her Shonda Rhimes show is such a big hit, that this kind of news is impossible to keep out of the media. Of course, Kerry's character Olivia Pope is not pregnant and that definitely wouldn't work for the dramatic series. Fans and critics alike have joked that the show has hidden her pregnancy in a whole bunch of hilarious ways. One amazing example? When her character stood behind a lamp. Yes. Really. A lamp. Well, that's definitely one way to do it. In some scenes, the character's body is even half hidden by a couch or another piece of furniture. It's actually kind of amazing that this is happening. But hey, it adds a whole other layer of entertainment.