Beautiful's Anika Larsen on Her Pregnancy, 'Turbo-Speed' Relationship & Baby Guru Kelli O'Hara

Beautiful Tony nominee Anika Larsen is expecting her first child with partner Freddie Maxwell in late June. Of course, balancing eight shows a week with pregnancy can be tricky, so Larsen turned to someone who really knows babies and Broadway: five-time Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara. 

“When I was still having to be secretive about it, I bumped into Kelli and thought, 'She’s the one to talk to!' She’s done it twice now—gotten pregnant while she was on Broadway—so I sidled up to her and told her my news,” says Larsen. “Kelli has insisted on being my buddy throughout this, and she’s been incredibly helpful about what to expect. [Like] when to tell my dresser in secret, so she could move a button for me, or when I was going to have to tell wardrobe that there would have to be bigger alterations “

Larsen, who is about four months along in her pregnancy, says she’s not showing yet, but she’s noticed plenty of other changes: “The baby’s a size of an avocado this week, so it means that it’s definitely pushing against my bladder. I have to pee during every single costume change now.”

The excited expectant parents had a Beautiful beginning to their relationship. Larsen met Maxwell when her dresser set them up on a blind date last February. “We’re old enough to know what we want and to recognize when we’ve found it and snatch it and never let it go,” she says about their whirlwind romance. "We’ve been on turbo-speed.”

The actress says she doesn’t have a timeline yet for when she’ll leave the show, but she does guarantee she’ll be back: “I’ve never done this before, so we’re just going to play it by ear."