Heavy It's a girl for Hallmark couple Patti Murin and Colin Donnell
Actors Patti Murin and Colin Donnell are “living in a cocoon of newborn snuggles” after welcoming their second child, a baby girl named Lorelai Grace Donnell. On April 7, 2023, Murin — who learned she was pregnant while on the set of her latest Hallmark Channel movie — shared via Instagram that baby Lorelai arrived on April 2 and was “welcomed so lovingly” by her big sister Cecily, who turns three in July.
Murin added, “We are over the moon, feeling great, and we also nap a lot. Love love love ♥️”
In the comment section of her announcement post, Murin thanked fans and friends for their loving messages and wrote, “We are living in a cocoon of newborn snuggles and Cecily love, with just a tinge of sleepless nights 😂”
Murin Found Out She Was Expecting While Filming Hallmark Christmas Movie
The Broadway stars got to know each other in 2013 when they appeared in the same Shakespeare production, according to Broadway.com, and married in 2015. They’ve since found success on TV, too, including becoming series regulars on NBC’s “Chicago Med” and starring in multiple Hallmark movies.
In 2019, per Hallmark Media, Murin appeared in “Holiday for Heroes” on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. In 2020, she and Donnell co-starred in “Love On Iceland” and in 2021, they appeared together again in “To Catch a Spy.”
But it was while filming “In Merry Measure” with Brendan Penny and Jennifer Robertson, which premiered in November 2022, that Murin learned she was expecting. As Murin live-tweeted during the movie’s premiere, she revealed that Robertson and the movie’s director, Paula Elle, were among the first people to hear her pregnancy news.
“I’m pretty sure we shot this scene the day after I found out I was pregnant,” Murin tweeted. “Our director Paula and Jen Robertson (the genius woman who plays my sister and is my newest real life BFF) were among the very very first people to know!”
I’m pretty sure we shot this scene the day after I found out I was pregnant. Our director Paula and Jen Robertson (the genius woman who plays my sister and is my newest real life BFF) were among the very very first people to know! #InMerryMeasure
Coincidentally, “In Merry Measure” wound up being the second Hallmark movie Murin filmed while pregnant.
In November 2022, she told Hollywood Life, “This actually wasn’t the first Hallmark movie that I was pregnant during because when we did ‘Love On Iceland’ in late 2019, I found out the week before we flew to Iceland that I was pregnant.”
Patti Murin & Colin Donnell Have Faced Hardships While Growing Their Family
Murin has shared on social media how thrilled she is to now have two healthy daughters. In a post on April 10, featuring a photo of her in a Hallmark bathrobe holding both of her girls, she wrote that she couldn’t look at the picture “without crying.” Having two healthy little girls is not something she and Donnell take for granted after facing multiple hurdles while growing their family.
In late 2016, years before Cecily was born, Murin suffered a miscarriage when she was eight weeks pregnant, according to the New York Times. At the time, she’d been in the running for the role of Elsa in Disney’s Broadway adaptation of “Frozen.”
A week after her miscarriage, she told the paper, Disney asked her to audition again but she refused, saying she was too heartbroken. She told the production team they’d seen her enough to know whether she was what they were looking for — and they agreed, offering her the role.
In the end, playing Princess Anna in the Tony-nominated musical reinforced her desire to be a mom and helped her feel even more prepared for that role as she worked daily with the youngest members of the show’s cast.
“Obviously, no matter what, you want a happy and healthy baby,” she told People in 2020. “But all these years in ‘Frozen,’ it really made me want a girl real bad.”
Murin added, “I feel ready to raise a girl because I’m in a place as a woman where I feel like I know something about how I want them to turn out. It’s made me excited to have a little spitfire of a daughter of my own.”
In October 2020, three months after Cecily’s birth, Murin revealed on Instagram that their baby had been born with a hole in her heart and required open heart surgery when she was 10 weeks old.
Murin wrote, “No matter how much you prepare mentally, watching your impossibly tiny new daughter go through an incredibly serious and invasive surgery is gut wrenching at best. And helping her recover day by day, breath by breath, has been humbling and inspiring.”
In September 2021, Murin updated her Instagram followers on Cecily’s health, celebrating that their daughter was “not just alive, but thriving and bringing joy to countless people every day.”
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Real-Life Hallmark Couple Shares Baby News: ‘Over the Moon’