Julia Louis-Dreyfus has revealed she had a miscarriage in her 20s, an experience that was made more difficult after she developed an infection.
The Seinfeld and Veep star opens up about her pregnancy loss in the latest episode of her Lemonada podcast Wiser Than Me. The podcast, which focuses on conversations with older female creatives, has featured discussions with Jane Fonda, Isabel Allende and Fran Lebowitz.
The latest episode is a larger conversation with the 75-year-old food writer, magazine editor and author Ruth Reichl, behind the infamous New York Times review of Le Cirque and a controversial David Foster Wallace article in Gourmet. During their hour-long conversation, Reichl opens up about living with a mother who had bipolar disorder and how she processed grief through food.
Louis-Dreyfus opens the episode detailing her miscarriage and how her mother’s cooking ultimately helped heal her.
“When I was about 28, I got pregnant for the first time and I was crazy happy. I got pregnant easily. I felt very fertile, very womanly. And then, quite late in the pregnancy, my husband Brad and I discovered that this little fetus was not going to live,” she recalls. “So that was emotionally devastating, as you can imagine, but it got worse because I developed an infection that landed me in the hospital.”
The actress and producer says that the whole ordeal was “a complete nightmare,” that resulted in her staying the hospital for multiple days, and, after coming home, she “wasn’t allowed to get up out of bed yet.”
“I was, as they say, bedridden,” she continues. “But my mom cooked. She made this incredible, cozy chili in a cast iron skillet, with cornbread on top in the pan. And she and my husband Brad set up a little card table at the foot of the bed. And the smell of that cornbread chili was so wonderful — it just filled the room and the whole house and my heart, really.”
Louis-Dreyfus says that was a joyful experience even though she “couldn’t eat” because she “wasn’t allowed to have solid food.”
“It didn’t matter. It was the best meal, and I didn’t even eat it. The making of it was so comforting — it was so embracing,” she adds, leading into her podcast guest. “Food is central to the traditions of my family.”
Louis-Dreyfus has been outspoken about reproductive rights for years, most recently in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, protesting and working to mobilize voters.
