It is an interesting coincidence that one "This Is Us" actress is playing the part of being pregnant while another actress on the show is actually pregnant in real life. In the second season of NBC's popular series, Chrissy Metz's character, Kate, revealed that she is pregnant by her boy boyfriend Toby, who is played by Chris Sullivan. Alexandra Breckenridge, who plays Sophie, is really pregnant. She is Kevin Pearson's ex-wife on the show. They have reconnected and are dating since their divorce.

The real pregnancy

The 35-year-old actress had planned to keep her pregnancy a secret because she didn't know how it would be received by the producers.

In fact, she was afraid she would be fired because she was just promoted to be a regular and she didn't know how it would affect what creator Dan Fogelman had in mind for the storyline.

Breckenridge and her husband, Casey Hooper, are expecting their second child in December. They already have a 15-month-old son named Jack. A blog called Refinery 29 states that they are excited about having a baby girl.

The former "True Blood" actress finally told Fogelman that she was expanding her family. She had worried needlessly because the creator of the show congratulated her and said that it was nice. The actress was very relieved. When she told her co-star Justin Hartley about her pregnancy, he also was happy for her.

Pregnancies on shows

Writers know how to either write a pregnancy into a movie or camouflage it. Now that Kevin and Sophie have gotten back together, Sophie could be pregnant by him and both Kate and Kevin would have babies around the same time. If not, Sophie could only be in scenes that would not require her entire body to be shown.

Sometimes a pregnancy is written into the storyline of a show, but it doesn't have to be. If Fogelman doesn't know how to do it, Shonda Rhimes and the producers of "Scandal" could certainly give advice and some good tips. That's because of Kerry Washington, who plays the part of Olivia Pope, as she went through two pregnancies while starring on the popular ABC series.

However, neither one of her pregnancies became part of the show. Washington was filmed wearing oversized clothes and standing behind large plants and lamps. She was also filmed sitting on a couch or in bed so the cameras would not show her growing belly.

Breckenridge does not appear in every episode. When she does appear, watch to see how the camera people work their magic to keep her pregnancy hidden. "This Is Us" airs every Tuesday night at 9 PM on NBC.
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