FameFlynetCongratulations are in order for Jennifer Carpenter and fiancé Seth Avett!
E! News has learned the 35-year-old actress has given birth to her first child. The Dexter star appeared at TCA today, where she spoke on the panel for Limitless and showed no signs of a baby bump, revealing she was eight months pregnant when she shot the pilot for the CBS show. She was also photographed shopping on Saturday with a flat tummy.
"I did eight years of research on a show called Dexter about working in law enforcement. I felt pretty equipped. It was more about ignoring my current circumstances of being eight and a half months pregnant while we were shooting the pilot, and asking everyone else to pretend that stomach wasn't there," she told the audience of filming the pilot in late March (presumably, she gave birth in late spring).
As for how they hid her belly?
"We have an incredible costume designer and he worked miracles," she shared. "I'm actually wearing something in the second episode that we tried to wear in the first around my pregnant belly. I don't know if he's a magician or what but Marc Webb's camera angles, people crossing at the right time, I actually bumped into [co-star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio]'s desk at one point and that actually made it into the show. It was magic...I have my mother's frame."
In fact, she didn't think she would land the part due to her pregnancy.
"I was without a doubt, ‘I was pregnant,'" she recalled telling the producers. "I was eight and a half months when we shot it. I got the script and I thought, I just want to throw my hat in the ring knowing my odds of getting it in my condition were next to none. I sent it in with an apology if I'm being totally honest. It was me and my fiancé at our kitchen table having a good time. So when my manager called and said they'd like you to do it, I don't know…I'm still kind of adjusting to the idea."
E! News confirmed in February that the former Dexter star was both pregnant and engaged. Carpenter and Avett (of Avett Brothers fame) have been together since 2013, coupling up after she divorced Dexter co-star (and on-screen brother) Michael C. Hall.
Congrats to the happy couple!