10 TV Stars Who Hid Their Pregnancies Onscreen

    That ain't no baby weight.

    Krista Torres
    by Krista Torres

    BuzzFeed Staff

    January Jones, Mad Men

    AMC

    During Season 5, Jones did not want to try and hide her bump. So show creators wrote in a sudden weight gain for Jones' character, Betty Draper. Not only did Jones work while pregnant, she also had to wear heavy prosthetics during shooting.

    Kerry Washington, Scandal

    ABC

    Washington became pregnant during Season 3 of Scandal. She said she went through an "amazing physical transition, this physical journey of having a baby, that my character was not going through." The show used many different ways to hide her pregnancy, such as hiding the bump behind large purses, placing her behind lamp shades, and only shooting her from the chest up.

    Courteney Cox, Friends

    NBC

    Show producers had no choice but to hide Cox's belly. Her character, Monica, was unable to conceive, so she and Chandler (Matthew Perry) were adopting when Cox became pregnant in real life. Her baby bump was covered by loose clothing for most of the final season of Friends.

    Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders, How I Met Your Mother

    CBS

    Both Hannigan and Smulders were pregnant in Season 4, so the show decided to playfully hide their bumps behind ironic things like a rack of basketballs or a globe. In the GIF shown above, Hannigan’s character, Lily, has a bulging belly because she’s just won an eating contest.

    Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

    NBC

    Poehler was pregnant during production in 2010. It was hidden on the show with baggy clothing and by using tight shots during filming.

    Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld

    NBC

    In Season 3, Jerry Seinfeld suggested writing in that Elaine gets "fat." Louis-Dreyfus broke into tears. She ended up using coats, books, and presents. She was even absent from the beginning of Season 4 to give birth.

    Claire Danes, Homeland

    Showtime

    In Season 2, Danes wanted to shoot through her pregnancy without using camera tricks to hide her bump, but eventually producers decided she was just showing too much. They ended up using a series of creative tight shots and a belly double for wider shots to hide her baby bump.

    Leah Remini, King of Queens

    CBS

    During the sixth season of King of Queens, Remini was pregnant. The writers made her character unemployed and always in baggy clothing to make her pregnancy weight gain seem intentional.

    Lisa Kudrow, Friends

    NBC

    Kudrow had it easier than most pregnant actresses. In real life, she was pregnant with her son during the fourth season of Friends, but it was actually written into the part. The show didn't necessarily hide her pregnancy, they just made her pregnant with triplets and emphasized her real baby bump even more. Her character, Phoebe Buffay, was a surrogate who delivered her brother's triplets.

    Keri Russell, The Americans

    FX

    Russell and her co-star, Matthew Rhys, were not only onscreen lovers, they had real-life romance as well. During Season 4 of The Americans, the show hid Russell's baby bump with groceries, baskets, and large coats. The show also resorted to computer-generated graphics to take out the bump altogether.

    CORRECTION

    Amy Poehler was only pregnant once during production on Parks and Recreation. A previous version of this post misstated the dates of her pregnancies.