You learn something new every day!
When Roseanne was on back in the mid-90s, many fans were curious if Roseanne Barr‘s pregnancy in the show meant she was actually pregnant in real life. And truth is, it did!
In 1995, Roseanne gave birth to her real-life son Buck Thomas with her ex-husband Ben Thomas after using fertility drugs (as she explained at the end of an episode she missed due to her pregnancy).
In the show’s seventh season, however, Roseanne and Dan Conner (played by John Goodman) welcome son Jerry Garcia Conner (played by Cole and Morgan Roberts) in their forties. They named him after Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead. Before his birth, it was assumed that the baby would be a girl, but Roseanne changed it so the gender would coincide with her real-life baby.
During Season 8, Roseanne revealed that her character became pregnant three months before she did.
And that’s not the only storyline that coincided with a real-life pregnancy in the show! During Season 6, Laurie Metcalf’s character, Jackie Harris, was sporting a huge baby bump, and as many fans picked up right away, she was also pregnant in real life!
Roseanne when she was pregnant in 1995.
Back in early 1993, the actress welcomed her second child, son Will Theron Roth in real life. When she told producers she was expecting, they decided to work it into the storyline. In the series, Jackie (who is Roseanne’s younger sister in the show) has a one-night stand with a man named Fred, who gets her pregnant.
After giving birth to her son Andy in the show, he becomes a main focus in the storyline, as Jackie stays with his dad, Fred, before eventually splitting up.
In real life, Laurie later welcomed daughter Mae Akins Roth via surrogate with her ex-husband Matt Roth and in 2006, the couple adopted their son Donovan Roth.
