Casey Rodgers/Invision for Palmer's/AP ImagesJennifer Love Hewitt is keeping busy while pregnant!
The 36-year-old TV actress took some time out of her busy schedule to shoot an ad for Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Stretch Mark products in L.A. Wednesday. For the shoot, Hewitt bared her baby bump. The campaign comes just after it was revealed that Hewitt will not be returning for Criminal Minds' 11th season.
Hewitt joined the series last year, and the series' 10th season finale aired May 6.
In the season finale, the team rescued Kate's (Hewitt) kidnapped daughter and her friend. Showrunner Erica Messer recently explained Hewitt's exit to Entertainment Weekly, saying, "I didn't know she was pregnant until really the end of the calendar year, which was still early, although we had already broken the finale at that point. There was definitely some going back and having more finality to her character."
"We had already set up that the episode would be about Kate and her family and the horrific thing that happens with her daughter Meg being abducted. That was already in play, but what wasn't in play was writing her out by any means. We went back into the writers' room and discussed options of how to do that," Messer told the magazine. "It felt like we had every opportunity to write to the truth of it: She's having another baby. Although on the show she hasn't had, physically, two babies, she does have two kids: She has Meg, who she's been raising since she was an infant, and we wrote in that the character is going to have another baby."
"There was an opportunity there to write towards the truth. Jennifer wanted to be able to give this second baby everything she gave her first, and that's taking time off to be a full-time mom." Hewitt is due in July, when season 11 begins filming.
The actress is already mom to daughter Autumn Hallisay,17 months.
"Timing-wise there was no way for her to do both, to be able to give that baby everything she wanted to give that baby and still be on our show," Messer said. "We wrote to that, and that's how season 10 ends. It's a bittersweet idea of 'life is full of choices and they define who you are.' She makes the decision to leave the team for a while. It's really lovely and real, not only because it was happening off-screen, but because I know those things happen in real life too."
Might Hewitt's character ever return? "It was a great season and we had a lot of fun with her. One of the great things about our show is you can leave those doors open. We rarely kill anyone. That opportunity for paths to cross again is definitely open. Everybody is on board with that. Of course, no one has a crystal ball, so it's hard to predict two years from now what's going on—or a year from now," Messer said. "But it's something we'd definitely creatively keep open." That being said, if Hewitt ever does reprise her role, it won't be in the near future. "I really want to honor her wishes of being able to go home and concentrate on being a mama to two babies. I've been there; it's a lot of work. I haven't even approached that with her yet."