NEW YORK — Broadway actress Laura Benanti gave a performance Monday while having a miscarriage, she shared in an Instagram post.
Benanti knew it was happening when she took the stage on “The Broadway Cruise,” she wrote in the post, which she said she shared to remind people “there is no shame in this kind of loss” and that they are not alone.
“It started slowly the night before,” Benanti wrote Wednesday. “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.”
The New York City-born Benanti and her husband, Patrick Brown, are parents to a 6-year-old daughter, Ella, and a nearly 9-month-old daughter, Louisa, whom they welcomed via surrogate.
“Patrick and I are so grateful for the family that we have, and the miracle of our two little girls,” Benanti, 43, wrote on Instagram. “One carried by me and one carried by an angel-on-earth. My husband and I are heartbroken but we will move through this together as we, and so many others, have done before.”
The actress said she performed in front of 2,000 people on “The Broadway Cruise,” which traveled from New York to Bermuda.
Benanti is a five-time Tony Award nominee who won best featured actress in a musical in 2008 for her performance as Louise in “Gypsy.” She has also starred in Broadway productions of “Into the Woods,” “My Fair Lady” and “Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”
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