Jennifer Love Hewitt was pregnant in real life when her 9-1-1 character was. Happenstance, or was she the cause of the storyline?
Over the years, Jennifer Love Hewitt has shared her “mommy moments” with fans. Many other parents have related to her experiences.
But she’s also a working actress. For years, she has been part of the cast of 9-1-1.
Hewitt was pregnant at the same time as her on-screen character. Did they write that into the storyline? Or was it a coincidence?
‘9-1-1’ star Jennifer Love Hewitt was pregnant when her character was
For context, Jennifer Love Hewitt portrays Maddie Buckley on 9-1-1. Buckley is a trained nurse, a 911 operator, and the sister of the show’s firefighter character, Evan “Buck” Buckley.
During Season 4 of 9-1-1, which aired from September of 2021 through May of 2022, Maddie Buckley became pregnant. It was a complex storyline involving a strained relationship and her postpartum journey.
In May of 2021, Hewitt announced that she was pregnant. In September of 2021, she welcomed her third child, Aidan. She shared the news on Instagram at the time.
Hewitt was already the mother of Autumn, whom she welcomed with husband Brian Hallisay in 2013, and Atticus, whom they welcomed in 2015.
On screen, Maddie Buckley and her boyfriend, Howard “Howie” Han (who also goes by “Chimney”), learned about the (fictional) pregnancy on Season 3, Episode 18.
This led to their characters welcoming Jee-Yun, their daughter, on Season 4, Episode 9.
Did ‘9-1-1’ add a pregnancy storyline because Jennifer Love Hewitt was pregnant?
In March of 2022, Jennifer Love Hewitt spoke to TV Line to explain that her pregnancy coinciding with Maddie’s was a pure coincidence.
“When we started doing Maddie’s pregnancy storyline, I was not pregnant,” she clarified. “But very quickly into that storyline, I found out that I was.”
Hewitt continued: “So I was pregnant while she was pregnant.”
“And with the timing of everything, I also ended up sort of being on my own postpartum journey as I was filming her postpartum episodes,” Jennifer Love Hewitt then acknowledged.
“It was very interesting timing throughout the whole thing for her and I. It was actually very helpful,” she observed. “My postpartum was sort of rushed through because I had to give it all to Maddie.”
Hewitt continued: “[Playing that character] gave me a place to put all the emotions. So it helped me, in real life, push through it probably a lot faster than I would have. I was very grateful for that.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt is glad that ‘9-1-1’ included the postpartum storyline
On 9-1-1, Maddie suffered from postpartum depression. She ended up leaving Jee-Yun and Chimney and moving to Boston (temporarily).
This story arc was not entirely coincidental. It was written to give Hewitt a break, so that she could go on maternity leave after welcoming Aidan.
Six months (in the story) later, Maddie and Chimney reunited … but found that they had broken up. So even though they returned to L.A. together, they broke up. They did get back together on the Season 6 premiere, however.
“I appreciated that in Maddie’s storyline, we really get into how part of what happened to her was just a missed hormone panel that no one paid attention to,” she expressed. “Because she fell into this rare category of people who needed this certain kind of thing for her thyroid.”
She pointed out: “There’s a real hole in mental health for women after they have a baby in that it’s very much like walking on egg shells.”
Hewitt explained: “No one wants to upset the tired new mom who’s breastfeeding and doing all of this. And the moms are sitting there like, ‘Why isn’t anybody asking if I’m OK? I don’t feel right.’”
