Danielle Brooks Opens Up for 1st Time About ‘Difficult’ Past Abortion: ‘No Way Around It’

Brooks added, “I broke down because I realized I wanted to be a mom, and that option was no longer on the table in this moment, and it shocked the hell out of me because I had always been like, ‘I don’t want to be a mother. I’m good. Career, career.’”

The actress further noted that having the D&C after her realization stirred up “a lot of emotions.”

“[I felt] guilty [and] selfish a lot,” Brooks said. “But I had a great partner, which is what was most important to me. He helped me through that time, and that was one of the reasons I said, ‘This is my husband,’ because he’s showing up in the right ways.”

Before meeting Gelin, Brooks wasn’t sure whether parenthood would be in the cards at all.

“I did not want children. I was one of those women who believed I was not going to be married and I was not going to have kids, and I was OK with that,” she explained on the podcast. “Then, I met my lovely husband, Dennis, in New York, and I was, like, ‘You know what? I actually think I can have his babies.’”

Brooks added, “It was more about the partnership, and I think that’s what scared me the most was feeling, like, I would have a child but not have someone to walk the journey with [and who] would take care of me during postpartum [and] be aligned when it came to religion, how we raised the baby and with schooling, all of that.”

After Brooks stopped taking Accutane, she got pregnant again. The Tony Award nominee and Gelin welcomed their daughter, Freeya, in November 2019.