Laura Benanti shares story of miscarrying while performing

Laura Benanti, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star who has appeared in shows like Supergirl and as Melania Trump on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, has long been an advocate for erasing the stigma of miscarriage. As such, she shared on her Instagram on Wednesday that she lost her most recent pregnancy, something that occurred in part while she was performing on the Broadway Cruise.

“On Monday April 3rd, I performed on stage for 2000 people while having a miscarriage,” Benanti wrote on Instagram. “I knew it was happening. It started slowly the night before. 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.”

The Go On alum extended gratitude towards the band, the crew, the producers, and her fellow performers for accommodating her needs, and the audience “for the grace your presence allowed. For lifting me out of my grief for that Holy hour.” She also thanked her in-laws for taking care of her 6-year-old daughter, before adding, “Thank you to that little soul for choosing me as your home, even for a short time.”

Benanti penned an essay about her experience with pregnancy loss for HuffPost in 2015, writing, “It seems to me that we, as a culture, haven’t quite learned how to broach this painful subject. My hope is that talking about it in an open forum can be healing in some small way. Sometimes it can be helpful to know that someone out there has felt the same pain as you, and that they are holding you in their heart.”

“My husband and I are heartbroken but we will move through this together as we, and so many others, have done before,” she concluded her Instagram post. “I share all of this, not to garner sympathy or attention, but to remind the many people and families who have and will suffer in this way that there is no shame in this kind of loss. That you are not alone. And to remind myself as well.”