Hallmark Stars Who Filmed Movies While Pregnant In Real-Life

When you look at the extensive catalog of Hallmark original movies, you'll find that there are no shortage of flicks about motherhood, or just taking care of children in general. For example, features like 2025's "The Christmas Baby" firmly occupy the former category, while something like 2022's "Three Wise Men and a Baby" would fall more into the latter. But sometimes life imitates art, and the actors who actually make Hallmark movies often find themselves expecting a bundle of joy of their own while on the job.

Of course, things can get a bit tricky when a pregnant actor is playing a character who isn't actually supposed to be pregnant. Fortunately, it's nothing a little movie magic can't fix. To that end, over the years, tons of Hallmark stalwarts have opened up about their experience working on a movie for the feelgood network while they actively had a baby on the way, and how the cast and crew managed to work around it. With that in mind, here are a few examples of popular Hallmark stars who made movies while pregnant IRL.

Hallmark original movie "Nature of Love" was released in 2020. It stars Emilie Ullerup as Katie, a magazine writer from the big city (of course) who's tasked with covering a nearby glamping resort. Not much for the outdoors, Kate gets a helping hand from the ruggedly-handsome Will, played by Christopher Russell. However, something you may not know about "Nature of Love" is that Ullerup was actually pregnant during production — "four months along," to be exact, as she informed Parade in April 2020. Ullerup explained that since she was already showing by the time cameras started rolling, she technically wasn't the only actor to play the role of Katie. 

"I had to have a body double for any wide shots," the Hallmark star recalled. She also "had to hold a lot of purses or my hands in front of me to camouflage the bump." Ullerup even humorously suggested, "You could make a drinking game out of the movie: Any time you spot the bump you drink. You may actually never see it though, I'm not sure." Evidently, while the filmmakers did a solid job at keeping her baby bump from being too obvious on camera, the use of a body double for the wide shots was slightly harder to conceal. 

About a year after the film came out, a user on the r/HallmarkMovies subreddit praised the clever prop placement and camerawork, though they remarked that the use of a double was glaringly obvious in certain scenes. You do what you can under the circumstances.

From the sounds of things, concealing a four-months-pregnant Emilie Ullerup's bump while shooting 2020's "Nature of Love" proved to be somewhat challenging for the cast and crew. However, it certainly wasn't the network's first rodeo. In fact, just a few years earlier, Hallmark had arguably an even bigger challenge on its hands, given that Lacey Chabert filmed the 2016 release "A Wish for Christmas" when she was about seven months along. In May 2016, five months before the film was released, Chabert took to Instagram to share a look at a special dress that did a miraculous job at hiding her baby bump — when shot from the front, at least. "So I definitely haven't been being filmed from any side angles in this movie," the actor captioned it. 

Still, much like with Ullerup a few years later, some other strategic filming techniques were necessary, as well. Chabert, who's been in so many Hallmark Christmas movies she can barely keep them all straight in her head, later discussed what being pregnant during the production of "A Wish for Christmas" meant to her while speaking to Entertainment Weekly in December 2016. "I love to always have a little part of myself in the movie, if possible, something personal," she confirmed simply. "This one I loved because I was pregnant — that's obviously very personal. I'll always be able to show my daughter and tell her she was in mommy's belly."

Jen Lilley filmed not one, but two 2019 Hallmark movies while pregnant with her daughter: "Love Unleashed" and "Paris, Wine & Romance." Despite being the second movie to drop, "Love Unleashed" was actually shot first. What's more, during its production, Lilley was early enough in her pregnancy that it wasn't too much of a hassle to work around. "That one was only challenging because it was cold, but that was the easiest one, I think, far as being pregnant goes, because I was working with Christie Will Wolf, and she's an amazing female director," the actor reasoned to the International Business Times in July 2019.

However, by the time Lilley shot "Paris, Wine & Romance," she was a lot further along in her pregnancy, never mind the fact that the filming location made it a bit tougher than normal to adhere to the necessary dietary restrictions. "It was hard because we filmed the movie in Bulgaria, so finding things in Bulgaria that I could eat was a little difficult. [...] They have all these delicious cheeses and all these things that you just can't [have] because you don't know if they're pasteurized or not," she explained to the IBT in May 2019.

About halfway through the four-week shoot, Lilley's baby bump became impossible to ignore. "We had to shoot, basically, starting halfway through — and they were conscious of it from the beginning, but we really started to make sure we were mainly shooting me straight on," she said, slyly adding that any side-profile shots would have made it look like she went a little too hard on pasta night.

"Snowbound for the Holidays" premiered on the Hallmark Channel in the summer of 2026. Lead actor Vanessa Lengies was pregnant with her son during the film's winter 2025 production, and by this point, you probably know the drill. The filmmakers were happy to accommodate Lengies, and utilized clever filming techniques to mask her baby bump as best they could. "I think, as you watch the movie, you'll see that [...] there are [...] definitely specific angles to hide anything you could, might see, 'cause it would not make sense for the character to be pregnant," the actor acknowledged during an appearance on "Survived the Shows" in July 2026.

However, things briefly took a scary turn when the set's icy conditions caused the pregnant Lengies to take a bit of a spill during the shoot. Lengies' co-star Marcus Rosner recalled the incident during a joint appearance on the "Girls Gone Hallmark" podcast, also in July 2026. "Vanessa slipped down some stairs in one particular scene [...] It was a whole kerfuffle, 'cause she was obviously early-stages pregnant, so it was very concerning to watch," he said. Rosner also pointed out that while the fall itself was obviously not included in the final cut, viewers shouldn't have too hard of a time deducing which scene they were filming when it happened.

During that same interview, Lengies confessed that her hormones also occasionally caught up with her during production. She detailed one specific moment where she was left heartbroken and angry after a scene she was excited to film had to be cut for time. "I do think I have to apologize to the director," the Hallmark star admitted sheepishly. 

Alexa PenaVega, wife of fellow Hallmark star Carlos PenaVega, was expecting the couple's third child when she shot 2021's "Taking a Shot at Love." Not only did the film's crew utilize the same clever techniques we've already mentioned on this list, in order to hide her baby bump, but Alexa herself was evidently rather proud of how well they were able to pull it off. "Ps. I am totally pregnant while filming this movie and nobody knew," the "Spy Kids" star revealed on X, in January 2021, the day the film premiered on the Hallmark Channel.

While some users in the comments section expressed shock, others shared that they had caught on to the fact that something was going on while watching "Taking a Shot at Love." One user, in particular, wrote that they couldn't help but notice things like the oversized sweater Alexa's character was wearing and the fact that she was holding a purse in front of her stomach. Of course, as we learned from Jen Lilley and Vanessa Lengies, hiding the bump is far from the only thing that makes shooting a movie while pregnant a challenge. 

During an Instagram Q&A shortly after her initial X post, Alexa also asserted that dealing with morning sickness on filming days, for instance, was far from an ideal situation. Nevertheless, she made it a point to "suck it up and smile through it," (via Bustle).