We may not have known about Kerry Washington getting married or her plans to start a family, but friends and family weren't surprised at all.
"She wants it," Washington's friend, legendary actress Diahann Carroll, told me at Women In Film's Crystal + Lucy Awards, adding, "She wants this baby and her husband wants the baby, so the baby is coming into an absolutely perfect situation."
Washington and football player Nnamdi Asomugha secretly married in June 2013 (E! News was the first to report the big news). The Scandal star gave birth to their first baby, daughter Isabelle, about two months ago on April 21 but it was couple of weeks before the public found out.
"You could smell that she wanted this whole life—the baby, the husband, the in-laws [and] the house," Carroll said.
She added with a laugh, "There's only a short period when you want all that." (The 78-year-old Carroll has been married four times!)
Carroll was among the guests at Washington's baby shower held at Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes' house in February.
Jane Fonda, also at the shower, blogged about the afternoon.
"I hadn't seen Kerry since she was pregnant and as soon as I saw her with her gorgeous belly I starting crying," she wrote. "Then Kerry's mother spoke, giving words of wisdom to Kerry and the rest of us about how to raise a baby to be a happy, fully realized, person."
"I started crying again (and it wasn't because I wanted to go back and do my own raising of my own kids all over again with more wisdom, though that did press in on me)...it was because her words moved me."
Washington was presented with the Lucy Award for Excellence in Television at the Crystal + Lucy Awards. The gala marked her first red carpet event since giving birth.
She told me she was "nervous" about being back in the spotlight, but "I was away for good reasons."