Julia Louis-Dreyfus reveals she suffered a devastating late-term pregnancy loss when she was 28

Eleven-time Emmy winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been making us laugh for decades, from her time as a Saturday Night Live cast member, to Elaine on Seinfeld, and to newer hits like The New Adventures of Old Christine and VEEP. 

But now, the comedy legend is getting real in a new episode of her very own podcast, “Wiser Than Me,” where she recently divulged that while she was making us laugh, she suffered an “emotionally devastating” late term pregnancy loss.

“When I was about 28, I got pregnant for the first time and I was crazy happy,” she said on Tuesday’s episode of the podcast where she was speaking with Ruth Reichl. “I got pregnant easily. I felt very fertile, very womanly. And then, quite late in the pregnancy, my husband, Brad (Hall), and I discovered that this little fetus was not going to live.”

“So that was emotionally devastating as you can imagine, but it got worse because I developed an infection that landed me in the hospital,” she added, calling the experience, “a complete nightmare.”

She continued, “After a couple of days, I’d finally gotten out of the hospital and I came home to recuperate, but I wasn’t allowed to get up out of bed yet. I was, as they say, bedridden.”

“But my mom cooked,” she said. “She made this incredible cozy chili in a cast iron skillet with cornbread on top in the pan.” Her mother, Judith Bowles, and hubby Brad set up a tray of food at the foot of her bed. However, she couldn’t eat it.

“The smell of that cornbread and the chili was so wonderful. It just filled the room and the whole house and my heart, really, because here’s the thing I couldn’t eat,” she said. “I wasn’t yet allowed to have solid food, but it didn’t matter.”

“It was the best meal ever, and I didn't even eat it. The making of it was so comforting and so embracing."

She went on to describe how the food traditions of her family were a central part of her healing. “Food is central to the traditions of my family,” she said. “I would think that to most families, that’s the case. I relate food especially to my mom. She’s a great cook. “This is one of my greatest memories around food, even though it has sort of an odd kicker.”

Julia’s story of pregnancy loss comes at a time where women’s reproductive health is being heavily regulated in the United States after their Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed an extreme 6-week abortion ban, and as of January, 12 States have total abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or miscarriage, like what Julia experienced. 

Since her miscarriage, Julia and hubby Brad have gone on to have two healthy kids, Henry and Charlie. In fact, you might have seen Charlie already, as he’s appeared in “Sex Lives of College Girls.” where he plays a biology student who becomes a love interest for one of the characters in the HBO comedy’s second season.

Julia even joked during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about watching her 25-year-old son get busy on screen.

“I think he was really great,” she said. “I mean, he was adorable. He was f***ing some girl in the library and I thought it was dynamite!”

You can listen to Julia’s entire story on her Wiser Than Me podcast here.