“She Brought a Baby Onto the Set of Gilead — And Somehow Didn’t Fall Apart.” Elisabeth Moss Finally Opens Up About Motherhood, Directing, and the Scene That Made Her Cry So Hard She Had to Stop Filming. The Handmaid’s Tale Star Says Becoming a Mom Changed Everything — Including How She Sees June. Now She Tells New Moms: “Wait a Year Before Watching This Show.”

Elisabeth Moss has taken on the role of a mother both on-screen and in real life.

The Handmaid’s Tale star welcomed her first child in 2024 after revealing she was expecting during a late night show appearance.

In a May 2018 conversation with Marie Claire UK, Moss opened up about the possibility of welcoming children, saying, “I like the idea of passing on what my mother passed on to me.”

“I do want to be a mother,” the actress said. “It’s not for everybody, and I didn’t know if it was going to be for me, but lately, I think it is.”

Moss later spoke to Good Morning America in April 2025 about how becoming a mom had “an effect” on how she approached her character June Osborne on The Handmaid’s Tale, the sixth season of which premiered on April 8.

“It’s impossible not to think about the real child and to draw those parallels in a very emotional way,” she said. “Plus, I was really tired.”

From how she announced her pregnancy to the ways having a kid impacted her role in The Handmaid’s Tale, here’s everything Elisabeth Moss has said about her child.

Moss announced her pregnancy on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Moss announced her pregnancy during a January 2024 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

At the beginning of the interview, host Jimmy Kimmel asked Moss, “Are you pregnant or just an incredibly committed method actor?”

Moss replied, “A little bit of both.”

The actress continued to say that she had been “really lucky” throughout her pregnancy, saying, “It’s been going really well.”

She welcomed her child in 2024

Moss quietly welcomed her child in 2024 — and brought them to work shortly after!

While at PaleyFestLA in March 2025, Moss reflected on what it was like having her baby by her side as she filmed the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, saying, “I feel so fortunate to be able to do that.”

“So many parents cannot. So that’s what we always say,” she continued. “Any of us who had the privilege of being able to bring our kids or see our kids at work, we would every single time be like, ‘Aren’t we lucky to get to do that?’ “

She hasn’t publicly shared the identity of her baby’s father

Moss has kept details about her child largely private, including the identity of her baby’s father.

The Girl, Interrupted star was previously married to actor and comedian Fred Armisen, from whom she filed for divorce in 2010. Since then, she has kept the details of her romantic life out of the spotlight.

“I learned you just don’t talk about it,” she told Marie Claire in April 2019. “I hate to put that importance on it.”

Her pregnancy made playing June on The Handmaid’s Tale a “visceral emotional experience”

Moss’ character, June, is a mother of two, having welcomed her second child during season 2 of the series, which originally premiered in 2018. In March 2025, Moss spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about what it felt like to become a mother herself before portraying June for the last season, saying, “It was incredibly meaningful to be able to end this show as a mom, I got to tell you.”

She went on to say that there was a “beautiful synergy” between her real life and on-screen character, explaining that there was a “coming together of art and life that was undoubtedly, incredibly meaningful.”

“It’s such an important part of the story,” Moss said. “I’m really glad that I got to have this last season playing June with a little bit more of a visceral emotional experience of some of the things that June is talking about or fighting for.”

She added, “I’m really happy that I got to have that experience.”

At the Los Angeles premiere of the show’s last season on April 2, Moss opened up further about how her perspective while filming has changed since becoming a mom, saying, “It’s definitely a more emotional experience as opposed to maybe a little bit more intellectual.”

Moss joked she used a “mom voice” while directing episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale

During an April 2025 appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark ahead of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s final season premiere, Moss joked that her castmates said she occasionally used a “mom voice” while directing some of the episodes.

“If no one’s calming down or if people won’t get on their marks or won’t go to rehearsal, I’m like, ‘I will turn this car right around,’ ” she joked.

The actress also explained how motherhood has changed how she perceives the show — and whether she’d recommend it to new moms.

“If people came up to me, especially moms, and said, ‘Oh, it’s so dark, I can’t watch it,’ or ‘I just gave birth, I can’t watch it,’ I would be like, ‘You’re fine, get over it, you know. It’s okay. It’s just a TV show,’ ” Moss said. “Now I’m like, ‘I totally get it. You shouldn’t watch it … Wait a year.’ “