Art imitating life! During the Monday, April 19, return of 9-1-1, Jennifer Love Hewitt‘s Maddie finally gave birth to her and Chimney’s (Kenneth Choi) daughter after going into labor while at work. Now, the 42-year-old actress no longer has to wear the fake baby bump, which was actually hers from years ago.
“It was made handmade for me when I did my pregnancy story line on Ghost Whisperer. It’s such an amazing belly because it’s weighted, so it actually makes you feel [pregnant]. I peed every two seconds this whole season because it was actually pressing on my stomach,” Hewitt told Us Weekly exclusively. “It’s a really good one, so when the story line came up, I was like, ‘Guys, I can even provide my own belly! Get excited!’”
She also noted that filming a birth scene was easier this time than on Ghost Whisperer, which aired from 2005 to 2010, since she has now been through the experience herself. Hewitt shares daughter Autumn, 7, and son Atticus, 5, with husband Brian Hallisay.
“I was 26 years old. I had no idea what I was doing. I would watch some other people do it on camera,” the Client List alum explained. “This time, I was able to really pull from my own personal experiences — so much that the crew was really uncomfortable about it. They were like, it really feels like you’re in labor. It was quite funny to do, and it took forever!”
The singer noted that the birth scene was a long one to shoot and she spent “a good eight hours pushing” at the end of the day.
“It was pretty exhausting. I broke little capillaries in my face, and I had a sore throat the next day. I could barely talk,” she said. “I literally laid in bed the entire next day after filming this!”
As for what’s next, the Heartbreakers star says that there will be a small time jump to when Maddie returns to work after being on maternity leave, and audiences will see “all the complicated emotions that kind of come with that.”
Fans who are hoping to see Maddie and Chimney take the next steps in their relationship and get engaged, however, may be waiting a bit longer, despite the fact that they’re “a pretty solid” couple, according to Hewitt.
“We’re almost at the end of filming so it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be something necessarily happening this season, but I think that it’s coming,” the Texas native said. “But I the rest of the season plays out in a very real way. Most of their conversations would be about being parents, having that new baby or being tired or the things that they’ve kind of dealt with at work.”
9-1-1 airs on Fox on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.