Laura Benanti thanks fans for ‘openness’ after sharing miscarriage experience

Mike Bedigan, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

Broadway star Laura Benanti has thanked fans for their “openness and courage” after revealing she recently had a miscarriage while performing on stage.

The Tony Award-winning actress (43) said she was “deeply sorry” to those who had experienced similar losses, who had shared their stories with her.

Benanti detailed her own experience on Instagram earlier this week, which occurred on Monday while she was performing in front of 2,000 people on a five-night Broadway-themed cruise.

She said she had known what was happening but continued with the performance.

In another post on Friday she wrote: “I want to thank every single one of you for your love, support and messages of solidarity.

“I am deeply sorry for the losses so many of you shared with me. Thank you for your openness and courage. My hand in yours.”

The actress has appeared in US TV shows including Nashville and Supergirl as well as starring in multiple stage productions.

Over the course of her career she has received five Tony Award nominations, and won the best featured actress award in 2008 for her role as Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy.

In her original post, she thanked her friends and fellow performers for “rallying around me so graciously”.

“On Monday April 3rd, I performed on stage for 2000 people while having a miscarriage,” she said.

“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. It is a path I have walked before, hand in hand with my husband.

“But this time we walked it alongside some of the kindest, most loving humans I will ever have the honor to share space with.”

Benanti thanked everyone in the audience for their “grace” and for “lifting me out of my grief for that Holy hour”.

She added that she and her husband Patrick Brown were “so grateful” for their two daughters.

“My husband and I are heartbroken but we will move through this together as we, and so many others, have done before,” she wrote.

“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.”