Laura Benanti says she suffered a miscarriage while performing: 'I knew it was happening'
Laura Benanti is sharing some personal news with her followers.
The Supergirl actress and Broadway performer took to Instagram on Wednesday to say that she had suffered a miscarriage on Monday, April 3, while she was on stage singing for 2,000 people.
“I knew it was happening. It started slowly the night before,” she said of the experience. “If it had been our first loss, or even our second, I likely wouldn't have been able to go on. But unfortunately, I am not a stranger to the pain and emptiness of losing a pregnancy. It is a path I have walked before, hand in hand with my husband. But this time we walked it alongside some of the kindest, most loving humans I will ever have the honor to share space with.”
Benanti thanked those in the audience for the “grace” their presence allowed, as well as her band, friends and fellow performers “for rallying around me and so graciously accommodating my changing needs.”
“Thank you to my remarkable Mother-in-law and Father-in-law for shielding Ella from the reality of this experience and giving her the time of her life while ‘Mama's back hurt,’” she continued. “Thank you to that little soul for choosing me as your home, even for a short time. Patrick and I are so grateful for the family that we have, and the miracle of our two little girls. One carried by me and one carried by an angel-on-earth.”
Benanti shares two daughters, Ella and Louisa, with her husband, Tony winner Patrick Brown. The couple announced they had welcomed Louisa via surrogate in July 2022 following a miscarriage. Benanti had previously penned an essay for the Huffington Post in 2015, calling miscarriage the “Voldemort” of women’s issues due to the fact that it often goes not spoken about.
The performer concluded her note with, “My husband and I are heartbroken but we will move through this together as we, and so many others, have done before. I share all of this, not to garner sympathy or attention, but to remind the many people and families who have and will suffer in this way that there is no shame in this kind of loss. That you are not alone. And to remind myself as well.”
Benanti is not the first star to open up about suffering a miscarriage while at work. Earlier this year, Monday Night Football alum Lisa Guerrero shared in her memoir Warrior: My Path to Being Brave that she had experienced a pregnancy loss 20 years earlier on live television, while she was reporting on a game. In addition, Jessie J revealed in 2021 that she performed on stage just hours after learning she had miscarried.
Halsey, who suffers from endometriosis, shared in 2018 that she'd had a miscarriage while singing in front of an audience, and that the experience encouraged her to freeze her eggs.
"Before I could really figure out what [the pregnancy] meant to me and what that meant for my future, for my career, for my life, for my relationship, the next thing I knew I was on stage miscarrying in the middle of my concert,” she explained on a panel for the TV show The Doctors. “And the sensation of looking a couple hundred teenagers in the face while you’re bleeding through your clothes and still having to do the show, and realizing in that moment that I never want to make that choice ever again of doing what I love or not being able to because of this disease."
It’s not just these celebrities who know Benanti’s pain, as followers related to the loss and applauded the Younger star’s candor in the comments section of her Instagram post.
“It is so powerful that you were able to write such beautiful words about such a horrible experience, especially so soon after it happened,” one wrote. “When I suffered pregnancy loss it took me months to tell people. I am in awe of your bravery.”
Another added, “I am so sorry for your loss and for all of those before. I am also no stranger to multiple miscarriage and by sharing this so publicly you are truly helping so very many of us who feel and experience this alone. Thank you for being such a warrior and sending you and your family so much love.”
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