Laura Benanti, Jersey star of Broadway, TV and film, is celebrating the arrival of her second baby, a girl named Louisa Georgia Benanti-Brown.
Benanti, 42, announced the birth on Instagram Saturday after the baby arrived via surrogate.
The Tony-winning actor from Kinnelon and her husband, Patrick Brown, also have a 5-year-old daughter named Ella Rose Benanti-Brown. In sharing photos of Ella holding the newborn, she thanked their surrogate.
“On July 9th at 2:43am we were blessed with the arrival of our second daughter,” Benanti said in the post. “Like many, the journey towards growing our family has had many challenges..However, our journey has also been marked by the privilege to pursue different paths to grow our family. Specifically, our remarkable surrogate (an angel-on-earth) who carried our precious girl and delivered her into our arms; an other-worldly generosity of spirit, body, and kindness that can never be repaid..Ella and Louisa 🌈 Rainbow babies. Rainbow sisters.”
“Rainbow baby” is a term used to describe a birth that happens after the loss of another baby, whether that means miscarriage, stillbirth or death.
Ella arrived in 2017 after Benanti had a miscarriage.
She wrote an essay for HuffPost about having the miscarriage in 2015. At the time, she was 36 and engaged to Brown, who she went on to marry later that year.
“I felt like I was experiencing a miracle,” Benanti said of finding out she was pregnant. “I went home after our doctor’s appointment with the sweet rhythm of that heartbeat on a magical loop in my mind. Sorry, but this is where it gets sad. Thirty minutes after our appointment I started cramping and bleeding.”
The next morning, the baby had no heartbeat.
“Why do we not talk about this more?” Benanti said in the essay, telling women who experience the loss of a pregnancy that they are not alone, it’s not their fault, and they should be free to speak about it if they choose.
“If this is so common, then why do we only speak about it in whispers, if we speak about it at all?” she wrote. “If this is so common, why does it feel like the Voldemort of women’s issues?”
Benanti, who stars as Jane in the Hulu series “Life & Beth” and Katherine “Kiki” Hope on HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” revival, will join the upcoming second season of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.”
She has also been open about the trials of motherhood, including postpartum depression and what it’s like when your baby is allergic to your breastmilk.
“I am not sharing this to make anyone feel bad for me, or to bring anybody down,” she said in a 2018 essay for Romper. “I am sharing this because I feel like the imperfect aspects of motherhood are often glossed over and minimized.”
Benanti co-wrote a baby-style board book for adults called “M is for Mama (and also Merlot): A Modern Mom’s ABCs” with Metropolitan Opera soprano Kate Mangiameli, published in 2020 (”E is for Everyone, F is for F’em,” one part reads).
The actor, producer and singer released her debut solo studio album, “Laura Benanti,” in 2020, with covers of pop songs and torch songs. In 2021, she played Judy Wright in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film “Tick, Tick... Boom!”
Benanti won the Tony in 2008 for featured actress in a musical for her performance in “Gypsy.” Her Broadway credits include “My Fair Lady,” “Women on the Verge,” “Nine” and “She Loves Me.”
Her other TV work includes roles on “Younger,” “Nashville” and “Supergirl” and frequent appearances as former first lady Melania Trump — aka “Benania” — on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Benanti also produced HBO Max’s “Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020.” The TV special originated in a social media prompt from the actor.
The 1997 alum of Kinnelon High School, who won a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award, went viral for encouraging high school students to perform songs from their canceled school musicals after the pandemic shutdowns. She told them to share those home renditions with her by using #SunshineSongs in their video posts. The resulting “Homeschool Musical” special featured students from New Jersey and across the country.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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