Against the odds of paparazzi, Deuxmoi’s Instagram stories, and extremely online queer sleuths, Handmaid’s Tale actress Samira Wiley and her wife and Tales of the City writer Lauren Morelli kept their pregnancy a secret over the past year or so… until now.
The duo shared the first photo of their new baby girl over the weekend, and it’s just enough of a serotonin boost to keep us emotionally at peace until our next therapy session. In the Instagram post, a sleepy baby George Elizabeth holds her mothers’ index fingers.
George was born on April 11, which made this past Mother’s Day the couple’s first as moms. “Four weeks ago today, our daughter came into the world and changed everything,” Morelli wrote on Instagram. “We are so happy, so grateful, and so tired.”
Wiley also posted a Mother’s Day shoutout to her “beautiful wife,” thanking her for carrying their child. “Happy 1st Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, who four weeks ago today after laboring for almost 3 days gave birth to our first child — our gorgeous daughter, George,” Wiley wrote. “Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for.”
They join a series of new parents who’ve largely kept their pregnancies out of the public eye during the pandemic — a surprising feat, given just how much queer people love to over-dissect celebrity social media posts. Frankly, us gays have been failing of late, because last month Brenda Song and Macaulay Culkin announced they welcomed their first child in early April, while Uncut Gems star Julia Fox posted an impromptu Instagram pregnancy photoshoot on Valentine’s Day weeks after she’d given birth.
We should’ve been on the lookout, because Wiley had previously expressed openly her desire to have kids. In 2019, she told Essence she “really want[s] to be a mom” in part because of her own mother’s positive influence on her. “There’s been this age-old thing in our country — less so, now — that you could have a career or be a mom. And I’ve never ever thought that because she was both,” she said.
The couple married in 2017 after meeting on the set of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Wiley starred in the series as Poussey Washington, while Morelli wrote for the show. They celebrated their fourth anniversary together in March.
“[Four] years down. Whole lot more to go. Life is fucking breathtaking with you, @lomorelli,” Wiley wrote on Instagram in March. “Happy Anniversary, babygirl.” And, now, Happy Mother’s Day.
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