Actress Samira Wiley and her wife, screenwriter Lauren Morelli sent shock waves over the weekend after announcing their new baby girl as they celebrated their first Mother’s Day.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, the Emmy-winning actress gave a shoutout to her wife for being a great mother while sharing the name of their daughter, George Elizabeth, HuffPost reported.
"Happy 1st Mother’s Day to my beautiful wife, who four weeks ago today after laboring for almost 3 days gave birth to our first child—our gorgeous daughter, George," Wiley wrote. "Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for."
Using the same photo in a post of her own, Morelli made the surprise announcement to her fans saying she and Wiley were both happy, grateful and also very tired.
Prior to the social media post, the power couple of nearly four years refrained from sharing the details of their pregnancy. Over the weekend, however, they revealed Morelli had given birth to their daughter on April 11.
The pair had previously been open about possibly becoming parents back in 2018, The Cut reported. In previous interviews, Wiley opened up about eventually wanting to start a family with Morelli.
“Yeah, we think about that. We are so happy and so in love,” Wiley told Entertainment Tonight in 2018.
The couple exchanged vows in Palm Springs, California in 2017 after meeting on the set of Orange Is the New Black (OITNB) five years prior, where Morelli was a writer. According to People, the location of their wedding was the same spot where the couple had got engaged in October 2016.
They marked their four-year wedding anniversary in March, during which Wiley had shared a photo of their wedding.
Wiley, who stars in The Handmaid's Tale, for which she won an Emmy, said being married was about navigating life together.
“It's not just about you anymore, but about you and your partner as a unit," Wiley said.
In 2019, the OITNB alum was a figure behind the Poussey Washington Fund which was spearheaded by the show’s creators. It was formed to support eight non-profits that directly help incarcerated women, as Blavity previously reported. The name of the fund honors the namesake of Wiley’s fictional character in the show. In the Netflix series, Poussey was killed by a prison guard; the episode had brought great attention to real-life similar situations.
