Aubrey Plaza Announces Pregnancy: Joyful News Following Husband’s Passing

Aubrey Plaza is expecting her first child, marking a poignant new chapter following the loss of her husband, Jeff Baena, just over a year ago.

A trusted source has confirmed to the Daily Mail that the 41-year-old star of “The White Lotus” is pregnant with her new partner, 40-year-old actor Christopher Abbott. The couple is joyfully anticipating the arrival of their baby in the fall, though they have chosen to keep the baby’s gender under wraps for now.

In an exclusive with People, a source shared, “It was a beautiful surprise after an emotional year,” highlighting the blend of emotions the couple is experiencing during this significant time.

Having previously shared the stage on Broadway, Plaza and Abbott’s relationship blossomed into love, and they now consider themselves “very blessed” as they prepare to welcome their new addition.

The couple, who previously starred on Broadway together before falling in love, are said to be feeling ‘very blessed’.

Abbott is best known for playing the on-off boyfriend of Allison Williams’s character Marnie on Lena Dunham’s influential HBO comedy Girls. 

Aubrey Plaza is pregnant with her first child just over a year after the tragic death of her husband Jeff Baena

The White Lotus star, 41, first worked with her partner Christopher Abbott, 40, in 2019 on the indie psychological drama Black Bear

The couple first worked together in 2019 on the indie psychological drama Black Bear, in which both actors played dual roles as actors and directors trying to shoot a film in an eerie, isolated lake house. 

The low-budget thriller premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 to critical acclaim, with several reviewers singling it out as one of Plaza’s best performances to date.

She worked again with Abbott in 2023 — this time on stage — in the Off Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s play Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, which ran until January 2024.

Plaza and her new partner were last seen together on February 14 when they attended Khaite’s Fall/Winter 2026 show as part of New York Fashion Week. 

The two were pictured sitting side-by-side in the front row alongside stars including Elizabeth Debicki and Gemma Chan.

Prior to revealing her pregnancy, the Parks And Recreation star had managed to keep her relationship with Abbott under the radar.

According to DeuxMoi, a source had spotted Plaza and Abbot looking affectionate at Chatham Berry Farm in upstate New York last June, some five moths after the death of Plaza’s estranged husband.

They claimed that she was spotted speaking to a woman whom they later learned was Abbott’s older sister, Christina Abbot, before she posted about a performance at the farm on Instagram.

Abbott is known for a string of acclaimed roles over the past decade and a half, both on television and on the big screen.

In Black Bear the pair played dual roles as actors and directors trying to shoot a film in an eerie, isolated lake house 

They collaborated again on stage in 2023 in the Off Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s play Danny And The Deep Blue Sea

Plaza and her Abbott attended Khaite’s Fall/Winter 2026 show as part of New York Fashion Week in February, sitting next to actress Elizabeth Debicki

Prior to his breakout role on Girls, Abbott had a small supporting role in the well-reviewed psychological drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, which starred Elizabeth Olsen.

He has also appeared in films including A Most Violent Year (2014), James White, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), also starring Tina Fey, and the psychological horror film It Comes At Night (2017). 

In 2018, he appeared with Ryan Gosling as the astronaut Dave Scott in the Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, which was directed by La La Land’s filmmaker Damien Chazelle.

Abbott has primarily focused on low-budget independent films, but he has made forays into larger films, including comedy Poor Things (2023), also starring Emma Stone, as well as the DC Comics movie Kraven The Hunter and the Wolf Man reboot (both 2025).

He most recently appeared with Amanda Seyfried in the period drama The Testament Of Ann Lee and will star alongside Florence Pugh in an upcoming Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.

Plaza’s pregnancy follows a tragic 2025, which saw her estranged husband Jeff Baena commit suicide on January 3.

It was subsequently revealed that the couple had separated four months before his untimely death. 

An LA County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report obtained by the Daily Mail revealed that the filmmaker and actress had separated in September 2024. She had been living in New York at the time his body was discovered.

Abbott is best known for playing the on-off boyfriend of Allison Williams’s character Marnie on Lena Dunham’s influential HBO comedy Girls

Plaza’s pregnancy follows a tragic 2025, which saw her estranged husband Jeff Baena commit suicide on January 3 

The report detailed how the Life After Beth director had been ‘experiencing marital difficulties’ in his final months, and how he had been in therapy. 

An investigator noted in the documents that Plaza, whose name was redacted in the final report, said she had spoken with Baena the night before his death.

The report also tragically revealed that the actress had been concerned for her estranged husband’s wellbeing.

‘In October 2024, Baena made concerning remarks to [Plaza] which prompted her to call a friend to perform a welfare check on her husband. Baena had been attending therapy since that event,’ the documents stated. 

The report determined that Baena did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. 

It stated that Plaza ‘knew her husband to be alive’ as of January 3 because he had sent her a text message that morning.

According to the report, it was a dog walker who discovered Baena’s body after hearing loud music emanating from his house, which she said was ‘unusual.’ 

After she called the writer and director and didn’t get an answer, she entered the home and discovered his body. 

The couple began dating in 2011 and secretly married in 2020. Baena was found dead in their marital home on January 3, 2025, while Plaza had been living in NYC since their September 2024 separation; seen in 2016 in LA

In a statement to the Daily Mail at the time, a representative for the Plaza said: ‘This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.’

Baena, who was known for hosting a popular series of game nights for friends and fellow filmmakers, met Plaza at one of the events in 2011, and the two began dating shortly afterward. 

Baena, who got his big break when he co-wrote David O. Russell’s 2004 cult comedy I Heart Huckabees, later made his directing debut with the 2014 zombie comedy Life After Beth, which starred Plaza.

They reunited for 2016’s Joshy and 2017’s The Little Hours, which Plaza also produced, and she had a supporting role in his dark comedy thriller Spin Me Round, which starred Alison Brie, who co-wrote the film with Baena.

In 2018, Plaza told Page Six that the fact that she and Baena mutually ‘obsessed’ with movies helped them bond and led to their subsequent creative and romantic partnerships. 

The couple quietly tied the knot in 2020, and Plaza revealed that they were marrid while promoting Spin Me Round in 2021, when she referred to Baena on Instagram as her ‘darling husband.’

Following his death, Plaza made her first public appearance when she introduced musical guests Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard on Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special in February 2025.

She made a subtle but moving tribute to her late husband by wearing a tie-dye shirt, as they wore matching tie-dye pajamas at their low-key wedding after he picked up tie-dyeing as a hobby in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The actress made her first public appearance since Baena’s death at the SNL 50 special (pictured) in February 2025. She paid tribute to Baena by wearing a tie-dye shirt, as they wore matching tie-dye pajamas at their low-key wedding

She became a star almost overnight after Parks And Recreation debuted on NBC in 2009. She played April Ludgate, the misanthropic assistant to Amy Poehler’s bubbly bureaucrat; (L–R) Retta, Aziz Ansari, Plaza and Chris Pratt are pictured on Parks And Recreation

In August of last year, Plaza opened up about the grief she had experienced during a conversation with her former costar, Amy Poehler, on the former SNL star’s Good Hang podcast (pictured), which marked her first interview since Baena’s death 

Plaza began her career working in sketch comedy in the mid-2000s, before she began appearing in short films and online comedy videos later in the decade. 

She became a star almost overnight after Parks And Recreation debuted on NBC in 2009. Plaza played April Ludgate, the misanthropic assistant to Amy Poehler’s bubbly bureaucrat.

Plaza went on to become an in-demand film star with roles in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (which starred her ex-boyfriend Michael Cera), Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Ingrid Goes West (2017, The Little Hours (which was directed by Baena), Happiest Season (2020), Emily The Criminal (2022) and My Old A** (2024). 

She also appeared as a villain in the X-Men spinoff series Legion (2017–2019), and she was part of the ensemble cast on the hit second season of HBO’s The White Lotus in 2022. 

In August of last year, Plaza opened up about the grief she had experienced during a conversation with her former costar, Amy Poehler, on the former SNL star’s Good Hang podcast, which marked her first interview since Baena’s death.

After Poehler referenced the death of her husband and asked how she was doing, Plaza replied, ‘Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you. Overall, I’m here, and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m OK, but it’s like a daily struggle.’

She went on: ‘This is a really dumb analogy, and it was kind of a joke at a certain point, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge? 

‘It’s like [an] alien movie or something with Miles Teller…’ she said, referring to the 2025 Apple TV+ science fiction thriller he costarred in with Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver.

‘In the movie, there’s like a cliff on one side, and there’s a cliff on the other side, then there’s a gorge in between, and it’s filled with all these, like, monster people that are trying to get them. I swear when I watched it . . . I was, like, that feels like what my grief is like . . . or what grief could be like. At all times there’s, like, a giant ocean of awfulness, that’s, like, right there, and I can see it…

‘Sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just, like, be in it. Then sometimes I just look at it, and sometimes I try to get away from it. But, it’s always there.’