Bridgerton introduced several pregnancy story lines in season 4 — but who was actually expecting a baby?
During the newest season, which premiered on February 26, Sophie (Yerin Ha) slept with Benedict (Luke Thompson) before their eventual engagement. She then walked several days to see if she would get her period — or if she was pregnant instead. Ultimately her and Benedict didn’t conceive a baby — yet — although fans of Julia Quinn‘s novels know the fictional couple eventually become parents.
Francesca (Hannah Dodd), meanwhile, suffered from infertility issues in Quinn’s books, which was addressed in season 4. Following her wedding to John (Victor Alli), Francesca was excited to expand her family but they weren’t able to before her husband’s death. Francesca then briefly assumed she was pregnant after John’s funeral but that turned out to be a false alarm.
“Ultimately, I think John’s death and the funeral are already in so many ways such a departure from the tone of the show,” showrunner Jess Brownell told Swooon about choosing to not have Francesca find out she’s pregnant. “I think episode 7 has hints of lightness, but it is a much darker version of Bridgerton in a way that I think is really interesting, and especially in the way we get to watch the family come together.”
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In Quinn’s When He Was Wicked, Francesca miscarried weeks after John’s death. Brownell chose to depart from the events in the novel, which she called “too morbid” to add, saying, “We’re still very interested in honoring the fertility story line. It’s something we tried to honor this season, and we will continue honoring in her future season.”
She continued: “But yeah, the miscarriage just felt like, for the screen, a bit too far. I think it would be difficult for Fran to come back from all that.”
Quinn, meanwhile, weighed in on the evolution from her original idea.
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“I think [Francesca’s] emotions are the same. I have experienced pregnancy loss. I had three failed pregnancies between my two children,” she told the outlet. “And so I wrote her character very deeply from my own experiences. And I think changing up sort of how her loss happened really doesn’t affect her grief with that.”
Quinn praised how Bridgerton navigated John’s death. “Almost five years ago, I lost my dad and my sister to a drunk driver, so that is obviously a very sudden thing, just like Francesca,” she noted. “I thought they handled it really well, especially the sense of bewilderment. Because I think when you do lose somebody suddenly, there’s a surreal aspect to it.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
