Broadway actress and singer Laura Benanti announced on Thursday via Instagram that she recently suffered a miscarriage while performing on stage during a five-night Broadway Cruise.
In a post on Instagram, Benanti explained that this is the third miscarriage she and her husband Patrick Brown have endured. The couple has two born daughters, including one born using a surrogate.
“I performed on stage for 2000 people while having a miscarriage,” the actress wrote. “I knew it was happening. It started slowly the night before. If it had been our first loss, or even our second, I likely wouldn’t have been able to go on. But unfortunately, I am not a stranger to the pain and emptiness of losing a pregnancy. It is a path I have walked before, hand in hand with my husband. But this time we walked it alongside some of the kindest, most loving humans I will ever have the honor to share space with.”
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She added, “My husband and I are heartbroken but we will move through this together as we, and so many others, have done before. I share all of this, not to garner sympathy or attention, but to remind the many people and families who have and will suffer in this way that there is no shame in this kind of loss. That you are not alone. And to remind myself as well.”
In addition to thanking her “extraordinary producers” and other staff for handling the “personal emergency with sympathy and compassion,” Benanti thanked the audience “for the grace your presence allowed” and for “lifting me out of my grief for that Holy hour.” She also thanked the band and crew for helping her throughout the performance and the friends and fellow performers who accommodated her needs that night, as well as her in-laws for shielding their daughter, who was present at the time, from the reality of what was happening — the loss of her sibling.
Finally, she thanked her baby.
“Thank you to that little soul for choosing me as your home, even for a short time,” said Benanti.
