Days of Our Lives star Deidre Hall opened up about the road to surrogacy — and how the Baby M scandal initially had her concerned about exploring that route.
In Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the Tuesday, July 15, episode of the “Soapy” podcast, Greg Rikaart praised Hall, 77, for being candid about her journey to motherhood.
“It wasn’t really until I started on Days that we got to really know each other. I was so excited to really chat with you. I remember our first conversation — because I shared with you that my husband and I — had gone through surrogacy,” Rikaart, 48, who welcomed a son with husband Robert Sudduth in 2016 via surrogate, recalled. “Your openness and candor in sharing your story was so impactful to so many people.”
Rikaart noted that Hall’s public comments about surrogacy “moved the needle with regard to where the technology went and the access people then believed they had to have families, adding, “Before that — before you’re sharing your experience — they may have never known that that was an option for them. That’s a remarkable thing.”
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Hall, who plays Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives, shares two kids with ex-husband Steve Sohmer. According to the actress, she wasn’t immediately committed to surrogacy after the Baby M scandal made headlines in the late ‘80s. (The custody case set the precedent on the validity of surrogacy.)
“Before we had our children, the Baby M story was out there and that was a surrogacy gone bad nightmare. It gave everybody such a feeling of hopelessness about it,” she explained on Tuesday’s episode. “I’ve been through years of infertility and years of obviously trying to conceive and I couldn’t get it.”
Hall credited a chance doctor’s appointment, saying, “Then I was at one of the ultrasounds and heard two women talking. One said, ‘I’m so tired of this, I feel like a pin cushion.’ Because when you’re doing in vitro fertilization, you’re doing a lot of shots. And the other woman said, ‘Stop griping, I’m the one who’s got to deliver this baby.’”
The soap star continued: “I said to the doctor, ‘What am I hearing?’ He said, ‘That is surrogacy.’ I didn’t know much about it. I heard about the Baby M stuff. But my great belief is women helping women.”
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Hall expressed gratitude for her surrogates.
“I have had it happen to me all the time. I see it all the time. I celebrate it all the time and I thought, ‘Women do this, I can do this,’” she concluded. “So I headed down the surrogacy road.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Hall will offer a glimpse at her critically acclaimed role on Days of Our Lives that spans over four decades. CBS “Soapy” podcast, which releases new episodes weekly through September 30, will feature Rikaart and Rebecca Budig interviewing fellow soap opera legends.
