The True Story Behind Veronica's Pregnancy Arc On Shameless

Sometimes in the writer's room, pregnancy storylines are written into the narrative to achieve some sort of ultimate emotional reward in the overarching plot. Other times, an actress gets pregnant unexpectedly, and they have to shoehorn one in because shooting around her pregnancy would be too costly, too complicated, or both. But on the day that Hampton went to tell the showrunners that she was expecting, they were elated for a pretty hilarious reason: they had already decided to make her character, Veronica, pregnant on the show.

She fondly recalls showrunner John Wells telling her, "Great! Because we already have that planned for Veronica, so that means we won't have to put a belly on you." This fun story was published in an interview she did with the Chicago Tribune in February of 2019, but the wacky parallels to her character's mommy arc and her own IRL journey into motherhood don't even end there. She went on to tell the Tribune that the character's pregnancy on the show took about as long to film as her own real-life gestation, right down to the wire. Within 48 hours of filming Veronica's birth scene (which happened on a Friday), Hampton was holding her own baby girl in her arms the Monday after.

It's one thing to write a fictional story that others can absorb, relate to, and enjoy. But when life and art imitate each other so closely, it leads to some emotionally raw and profound experiences that really make the entertainment we consume that much more special.