Aubrey Plaza Shares Pregnancy News After Stroke and Personal Tragedy

Clear Facts

• Actress Aubrey Plaza, 41, confirmed she is pregnant with her first child during an appearance on the Smartless podcast
• Plaza suffered a stroke at age 20 that she believes may have been linked to birth control medication
• The announcement comes over a year after the death of her estranged husband, director Jeff Baena, who died by suicide in January 2024 at age 47

Actress Aubrey Plaza revealed she is expecting her first child during a candid conversation on the “Smartless” podcast. The 41-year-old “Parks and Recreation” star made the announcement while discussing her past health struggles and approach to contraception.

When podcast hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes asked about her current contraception methods, Plaza casually revealed the news.

“There’s a baby inside me,” she stated matter-of-factly.

The hosts were visibly surprised as Plaza confirmed the pregnancy. “There is a baby inside of me right now,” she reiterated.

Plaza explained she had visited her doctor that same day for an ultrasound. “My dog’s getting a scan right now, I got a scan earlier,” she said. “She had to get an ultrasound on her stomach and then I got an ultrasound on my stomach and there is a baby in there.”

The actress, who is dating actor Christopher Abbott, expressed enthusiasm about motherhood. “I always wanted to see what that’s all about,” she said. “It just seems so interesting.”

During the podcast, Plaza also opened up about a frightening medical emergency from her past. At age 20, while attending college, she suffered a stroke with no warning signs.

“It happened like truly in mid-sentence out of nowhere,” Plaza recalled. “It’s a horrifying story.”

The incident occurred after she had taken her sisters to a Hilary Duff concert. The next day, while having lunch with friends in Astoria, she began experiencing symptoms while talking about the concert.

“I stroked out and I kind of … the first thing that happened was like my right arm was numb, and I looked down, and I was confused,” she explained.

Plaza said she “blacked out” briefly, and when she regained consciousness, she couldn’t speak due to a blood clot in her “language center.”

“It was like not even slurring; it was just like not talking, but I can understand everything,” she remembered.

To this day, the exact cause of her stroke remains uncertain. Plaza believes birth control medication may have been a contributing factor.

“That was the only thing I was putting in my body,” she explained. “Like I wasn’t on drugs or, you know, doing anything weird.”

She added that she continues to undergo regular medical evaluations. “I still have to, you know, whenever I go to the doctors, I have to fill out like my history and … I’ve seen top neurologists, I’ve been tested for, you know, all the blood disorders and clotting disorders and everything.”

The stroke had a profound impact on Plaza’s spiritual outlook. Raised Catholic and educated in an all-girls Catholic school, her perspective shifted after the medical trauma.

“I feel like I’ve always been a spiritual person, you know. Now I’ve shifted into more of the dark arts, you know?” she said.

Plaza’s pregnancy announcement comes more than a year after the death of her estranged husband, director Jeff Baena, who died by suicide at age 47. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call on January 3, 2024, at a Los Angeles residence where Baena was pronounced dead at the scene.

Baena’s representative released a statement at the time asking for privacy. “The family is devastated and asks for privacy at this difficult time,” the statement read.

Plaza and Baena had maintained a private relationship since meeting in 2011. Though it’s unclear when they married, Plaza confirmed their marriage status in a 2021 Instagram post.

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