When Friends’ Monica Geller aka Courtney Cox Broke Silence On Suffering Miscarriage 7 Times While Filming The Sitcom “It Was Terrible Having To Be Funny” (Photo Credit – Instagram; Episode Still)
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While the American sitcom Friends is one of the most loved shows worldwide, it did not get enough credit for its progressive portrayal of pregnancies and parenthood. Each female lead, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow, had 3 different pregnancies on the show.
One of the realistically portrayed narratives was that of Chandler and Monica’s inability to conceive. Unfortunately, Monica’s inability to have a child in the show hit a little too close to home for the actress who played the role.
Off-screen, Courteney Cox struggled with miscarriages. The former Friends actor married to David Arquette in 1999. For a long period, the couple battled to have a child. Cox miscarried seven times due to a congenital defect that allowed her antibodies to attack the developing embryo within her body. She was eventually discovered to have an MTHFR gene variation, which increases her risk of blood clots, causing miscarriage.
During a conversation with NBC in 2004, Courtney Cox said, “I remember one time I just had a miscarriage, and Rachel (played by Jennifer Aniston) was giving birth. It was like that same time. Oh my God, it was terrible having to be funny.”
After two rounds of IVF, the Friends actress’s daughter, Coco, was born in 2004, just before she turned 40. She explained, “Well, it was really weird because everyone in my family has kids. I mean, they pop out like it’s nobody’s business. No one in my family has a problem. So to me, I just thought this would not be a problem at all. I get pregnant pretty easily, but I have a hard time keeping them. So now I decided to do in vitro, and I did that twice. And then, give myself shots of heparin every day – that’s a blood thinner. Take a baby aspirin.”
Fans can see Courtney Cox’s close relationship with her daughter Coco on the former’s Instagram profile. Coco’s godmother is Jennifer Aniston, Cox’s best friend on and off camera.
