TV

TV’s most surprising pregnancies

Laura Carmichael as Lady EdithCathal MacIlwaine/Carnival Film

Lady Edith Crawley, Downton Abbey

Spoiler alert: Poor Lady Edith Crawley. Jilted at the altar, never a bride, sometimes a bridesmaid -— she can never get it right when it comes to men. And then handsome newspaper publisher Michael Gregson came along. He valued Lady Edith’s opinion. After all, her opinions were tied to the Crawley fortune and Downton Abbey. Gregson gave Lady Edith an identity at the paper and a taste of the glamorous life in London. He even concocted a scheme where he was willing to go to Germany to get a divorce from his wife, an inmate a lunatic asylum, so that he and Lady Edith could be married. Then he disappeared. And Lady Edith—the shame of it—found herself with child.

What will become of Gregson’s spawn? Although Downton Abbey is large enough to run several day care center, having an illegitimate baby mixing with her cousins George and Sibby simply won’t do. Lady Edith has to make some tough choices. And so did the characters listed below. Their lives changed when they found out they were pregnant.

Peggy Olson, Mad Men

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy OlsonJordin Althaus

Peggy was just a peon at the Sterling Cooper agency when she started dating Pete Campbell. She, too, became pregnant but pretended she wasn’t, despite the weight gain and changes to her physique. Peggy carried full-term and feeling ill one day, went to the doctor and discovered she was having a baby. Subsequent psychiatric care was required. Peggy gave the boy up for adoption.

Carrie Mathison, Homeland

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison on Homeland.Lee Davis/Showtime

A weekend fling at a Mathison family cabin was a turning point for CIA agent Carrie Mathison. The father of the child, former Iraq War hero Nicholas Brody, was a fugitive, and a terrorist who had killed the president and revealed on video his disavowal of the United States and his plan to set off a suicide bomb. She tried to keep it secret, but the pregnancy was found out by doctors who examined her after she was shot in the shoulder. Carrie and Brody were briefly reunited and she was able to tell him she was carrying his child before he was hung. She plans to raise the girl as a single mother.

Maria Ruiz, Orange is the New Black

Jessica Pimentel as Maria RuizNetflix

A prison inmate, Maria had an affair with Bennett, a one-legged prison guard. The ramifications were shocking. She tricked Mendez, the guard that everybody hated to have intercourse with her so she could pretend that he was the father of the baby. He was subsequently dismissed.

Libby Masters, Masters of Sex

Michael Sheen as Dr. William Masters and Caitlin Fitzgerald as Libby MastersShowtime

Libby Masters was eternally patient with her husband, remote and chilly Dr. William Masters. After failing to get pregnant, she was told by another gynecologist that her husband was firing blanks. She became pregnant anyway, but the baby was stillborn. After recovering from the trauma, Libby went to the gynecologist for another fertility treatment and became pregnant. Not wanting to anger Masters, who never looked forward to being a father, Libby kept her pregnancy a secret. Masters was furious; he was, by this time, fully engaged in his affair with his research associate, Virginia Johnson. When Libby went into labor, Dr. Masters was otherwise engaged and she was taken to the hospital by her black handyman.