A lot has happened since Lea Michele gave birth to her son, Ever, 3, in 2020. The worst of a global pandemic, a cross-country move from California to her native New York, a triumphant return to Broadway as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (the role she was born to play), and even a spot on Time’s “100 Most Influential People” list.
Now the multi–hyphenate is pregnant with her second child, a daughter, and things feel different. I can relate; I tell her that when I was carrying my second, there were times I forgot I was pregnant. “Yes, completely!” she agrees enthusiastically. “There would be a lot of times where I’d be doing stuff, and then I’d get a little ‘oof,’ maybe I’d feel tired. And I’d be like, ‘Oh, my God. I’m pregnant!’ But that’s what we do as mothers. So much of our days are dedicated to our children and making sure they’re okay. So I would have to remember, ‘OK, I need to make sure that I’m taking care of myself.’”
These days Michele’s not forgetting, though. Her baby is due… soon-ish, we presume, given the visible bump in her late-March announcement on Instagram… and she’s grateful for the hard-won mom knowledge she’s gleaned over the past three and a half years.
“I definitely think that I had a lot of anxiety and fears of my child getting ill and how I would handle that,” she says. “And now with the second baby, having been through a lot with our son, I now know that just being prepared is the best thing that I could possibly do. I remember when we were preparing for our son to be born. Our pediatrician recommended that we fill up our cabinets with our first-aid kit and Children’s Tylenol because before you know it, your child has their first fever or ear infection. It can be very scary when your child gets sick for the first time, so making sure that you’re prepared is the best comfort that we could ask for.”
Ever is prepared, too. Over-prepared, one might say.
“Even before we got pregnant, he was asking about becoming a brother and having a sibling,” she says, noting that it took “a while” for her and husband Zandy Reich to conceive. “It was just the greatest joy to be able to finally tell him that we were going to have a baby. He was so excited. He still is so excited. And I really believe he’s going to be a wonderful older brother.”
Emphasis, it seems, on “older.” Ever will be four in November, and is well and truly out of the baby-stage at this point. Michele recalls singing lullabies to him when he was still in her belly, “Here Comes The Sun,” “Sweet Child of Mine.” She put them on an aptly titled album — Forever — in 2021, all sweet, soft, soothing. But…
“We’re no longer singing little lullabies. His musical repertoire or whatever has expanded,” she half-laments. “Now I have a four-year-old and he’s like, ‘Alexa: play ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen.”
Science truly needs to study why all children love this song.
But a new baby means a return to the lullaby phase, and, of course, a new name to announce. Because I’m not presumptuous and rude (to celebrities I’ve just met), I don’t ask what she’s picked or thinking about naming her little one, but I’m curious as to what names failed to make the final cut and, apparently, this is a passion subject for Michele.
“I literally look at baby name sites every day,” she gushes. “To the point now where I feel like I could give every child a name.”
The list of names she loved was long, and there were many she was sad to leave on the cutting room floor. But none more so than that of another diva known for her ability to belt in three octaves.
“Celine,” she reports. “And I think that a lot of people would think I’m naming the baby after Celine Dion because they know that I love her so much. But I do really love that name … The baby name game is just so fun. Do you know what we did the other day?
“My husband and I went out with my friend, Gideon [Glick], that I was in Spring Awakening with, and his husband. And we brought a list of 10 names. Some are names that we like and then others are names that we would never use, so we threw in some red herrings. We just made them give us their thoughts of every name, knowing that the actual baby name is on the list. And we did this with our son also. It’s so interesting when you get to the name and you’re like, ‘What are they going to say? What are they going to think?’”
The good news? They liked the top name. The not bad, but maybe medium news? “It was very brief. ‘We like it.’ Some they praised. They loved Celine.”
But Michele has let go of the idea of “perfect” as a mom, and not just with baby names, but with all things.
“I’ve eaten my words,” she says. “I think at the beginning, you’re like, ‘It will be all from the earth, the most organic carrot that you can find.’ And I was pureeing all my foods at the beginning. Look, I still do that, but I think there’s always going to be for me, if I can do it 80%, 90%, if there’s that 10% where you do the best that you can.”
Rachel Berry would never; good for Lea Michele.
