Samira Wiley celebrated Mother’s Day by announcing that she and her wife, Lauren Morelli, had become first-time moms.
The Emmy-winning “Handmaid’s Tale” actor introduced fans to her daughter, George Elizabeth, on Instagram early Monday. In the caption accompanying the adorable photo, she noted that Morelli ― whose pregnancy had been kept under wraps from the media ― had been in labor for three days before delivering the baby April 11.
“Welcome to the world, babygirl,” she wrote in the post. “We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for.”
Wiley and Morelli, a screenwriter whose credits include “Orange Is the New Black” and “Tales of the City,” married in 2017. The pair met five years earlier on the set of “OITNB,” in which Wiley starred as Poussey Washington.
In 2014, Morelli announced in a Mic essay that she was gay, explaining that her work on “OITNB” had made her determined to live authentically. “I went through it all on set: I fell in love with a woman, and I watched my life play out on screen,” she wrote at the time. “And now, as we are gearing up for the release of season 2, it feels liberating and appropriate to live my life in front of you.”
That same year, she filed for divorce from her then-husband, Steve Basilone.
In spite of the surprise announcement, Wiley had previously hinted in interviews that the couple was eager to start a family.
“Yeah, we think about that,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2018. “We are so happy and so in love.”