Rodriguez’ husband is really taking this pregnancy seriously
Jane the Virgin actor, Gina Rodriguez, is expecting her first child later this year. Her husband, MMA fighter Joe LoCicero, is stepping up in a big way by “training” to be her doula.
“He’s really next level,” Rodriguez told Entertainment Tonight. So much so, he’s been watching videos of live births. “He’s a martial artist and so it’s basically… he’s cornering the fight of my life,” she explained. “I wouldn’t call it a fight — I would say, it’s… me climbing my Mount Everest and he’s gonna corner me for it.” To train herself, she said she’s been “taking some hardcore prenatal classes, working on that pelvic floor,” to help during childbirth.
The couple, who met on the set of Jane the Virgin, wed in 2019, and announced the pregnancy in an emotional video posted on July 30th—her 38th birthday. “This birthday hits different,” she said, showing their positive pregnancy test.
“He’s just magical,” she continued. “He’s definitely the better half, so I’m hoping that he’ll just go on in there and pull our baby.” The role of a doula is an important one. They not only help during the birth itself, but provide emotional support before and after.
Rodriguez’ next project should help her prepare for motherhood. She is playing a mom in the new Netflix mini-series, Lost Ollie, premiering on Aug. 24. “I played mothers a few times, so it’s always the irony like, ‘Oh, I played moms a bunch of times but I’m not even a mom yet,'” she said. Based on the 2016 children’s book Ollie’s Odyssey, the heartfelt story follows the journey of a boy and his lost toy as they search to find each other.
The Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego? actor opened up about her relationship with her now-husband the year they wed. “Dating Joe was a new experience for me because I put myself first,” Rodriguez told Cosmopolitan in 2019. “For so long, I put every man in front of me. As a successful woman, it is so hard because of our cultural norms that, like, the man has to be the breadwinner! And the man has to be the more powerful one. It was so difficult for me to find a man who didn’t want me to dim my light for his ego.”
