Gender inequality remains a prevalent issue in the entertainment industry, particularly in Hollywood, where actresses may lose their jobs due to pregnancy.

Despite the fact that women strive for equality in all types of work, the entertainment industry may be the most glaring example of gender discrimination, as pregnancy can unquestionably impact the type of roles actresses can acquire.

There are various ways that productions can hide a pregnancy, including using wardrobe and camera angles.

For established TV shows or films, actresses may be given concessions, or production may be delayed to accommodate their pregnancies.

However, it is not unusual for producers to make a different decision.

In 1996, a jury ruled in favor of Hunter Tylo, a pregnant soap actress, for wrongful termination.

The defense attorney had no remorse, stating that “If nothing else, this decision will cause producers to pay even more attention to the wording of their contracts.”

The following are 16 actresses who have lost roles due to pregnancy.

Lisa Bonet played Denise on The Cosby Show, and because of her character’s bohemian and witty demeanor, she was a fan favorite.

However, Cosby was unhappy with Bonet after she performed a love scene in the drama Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke.

When Bonet decided to start a family with her then-husband, Lenny Kravitz, Cosby reportedly believed that a baby for Denise would further disrupt the wholesome image of the Huxtable family.

Bonet’s pregnancy was not incorporated into the show, and Cosby gradually wrote her character out of the Huxtable universe.

In 2011, Hilary Duff was supposed to co-star in a new Bonnie and Clyde biopic, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.

But during pre-production, Duff learned she was pregnant with her son, Luca.

Duff offered to shoot around her pregnancy or delay filming until after her baby’s birth, but the director, Tonya S. Holly, insisted it was not feasible.

However, because she was technically fired from the project, Duff was still paid $100,000 per her contract. The film remains in development as of 2018.

Now You See Me was a surprise hit, largely due to Isla Fisher’s performance as Henley Reeves.

However, when Fisher became pregnant with her third child with actor Sacha Baron Cohen, producers replaced her with Lizzy Caplan for the sequel, Now You See Me 2.

There is no news on whether or not Fisher will return for the upcoming third installment of the franchise.

Robin Wright turned down roles in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Firm to focus on raising her two children with then-husband Sean Penn.

She also rejected the female lead in Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, in favor of spending time with her children.

Wright voluntarily took a break from acting and is pleased with her decision.

Now that her children, Dylan and Hopper, are grown up, Wright has made a comeback, starring in House of Cards and Wonder Woman.

Nicole Kidman was originally offered the role of Hanna Schmitz in the 2008 World War II drama The Reader, but she turned it down after learning she was pregnant with her first biological child, Sunday Rose.

Even though the role did not require much physical labor, the 46-year-old actress explained that her method acting would negatively impact her fetus.

Producers were still interested in keeping her on board, but Kidman declined because she couldn’t work while pregnant.

Screenwriter David Hare later claimed that Kate Winslet was always his first choice for the role.

On the show Angel, Charisma Carpenter played Cordelia, a character that had developed a significant fan following.

However, when Carpenter became pregnant in real life, her character suffered on the show.

Many of the stories of actresses losing roles due to pregnancy reveal a pattern of gender inequality in Hollywood.

Although pregnancy is a natural part of life, actresses have to face the reality that it can affect their work opportunities.

While some productions make allowances, like using wardrobe or shot angles to conceal a pregnancy, others opt to make a different decision.

One notable case is Hunter Tylo’s. The actress was fired from the primetime soap Melrose Place for becoming pregnant, which prompted her to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the show’s producers.

The case was groundbreaking, with a jury of 10 women and two men ruling in Tylo’s favor, which resulted in a $5 million settlement.

Despite this, Tylo’s experience sheds light on the challenges that actresses face when dealing with pregnancy in Hollywood.

Lisa Bonet’s experience was also unpleasant. The Cosby Show actress lost her role as Denise Huxtable when she became pregnant with her first child.

According to reports, Bill Cosby, the show’s creator, was concerned that a baby for Denise would ruin the wholesome image of the Huxtable family.

Despite showrunner Debbie Allen suggesting that Bonet’s pregnancy could be a relatable story arc for Denise, Cosby disagreed, and gradually wrote the character out of the show.

Hilary Duff was also affected by pregnancy while working on the film The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.

The actress discovered she was pregnant with her son, Luca, during pre-production.

Despite offering to shoot around the pregnancy or wait until after the baby was born, Duff was told it was not possible, and was ultimately fired from the project.

However, she was still paid $100,000, as per her contract.

Isla Fisher’s experience is another example of the industry’s treatment of pregnant actresses.

Fisher played Henley Reeves in the surprise hit film Now You See Me. When the sequel was being shot, the actress was pregnant with her third child.

Rather than working around her pregnancy, producers replaced her with Lizzy Caplan, who played a new character.

The experiences of actresses like Janet Hubert-Whitten and Jamie Lynn Spears are also worth noting.

The original Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was let go when she became pregnant in the show’s third season, with producers not wanting to devote more screen time to her character.

As for Spears, she was fired from the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 when she became pregnant at the age of 16.

In the TLC documentary Jamie Lynn Spears: When the Lights Go Out, she discusses the weight of the ordeal, and how she had to make a tough decision.

Although the industry’s attitude towards pregnant actresses is disheartening, some actresses like Robin Wright and Annette Bening took time off to focus on their families, ultimately returning to Hollywood with a vengeance.

Wright voluntarily took a break from acting to focus on raising her children with Sean Penn, and is now enjoying a killer comeback, starring in the political drama series House of Cards and the superhero film Wonder Woman.

Bening turned down the role of Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns when she learned she was pregnant, ultimately deciding it would be too hard to hide her baby bump in skintight pleather.

It is not only film and television actresses who face discrimination when pregnant, as daytime soap operas have also been accused of mistreating pregnant actresses.

Four actresses from General Hospital, including Kari Wuhrer, Lesli Kay, Rebecca Budig, and Teresa Castillo, were reportedly written off the show when they became pregnant.

Wuhrer even claimed that producers stated outright that they were killing her character off because of her pregnancy.

Lastly, the story of Dana Plato highlights the devastating impact that losing a role due to pregnancy can have on an actress.

Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger sister of Britney Spears, had her own hit show on Nickelodeon called Zoey 101.

The show, which ran for four seasons, was cancelled when the then-16-year-old Spears became pregnant.

Producers didn’t want a teen pregnancy plotline, and so Spears was let go from the show.

In a documentary, she talked about the weight of the decision to have her baby.

“I knew I would have to make a decision as a young girl myself, to do something that I could sleep with at night,” she said.

“I was going to have my little girl, even if I had to raise her on my own, which is what I did.”

Janet Hubert-Whitten played Aunt Viv on the hit TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, for three seasons before being replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid.

While it’s unclear what led to her firing, it was rumored that she was let go due to her pregnancy.

While producers did incorporate Hubert-Whitten’s pregnancy into the show, they weren’t happy about devoting more screen time to her character.

Near the end of the season, Aunt Viv had her baby, and when the show returned, there was a new Aunt Viv in town.

Catherine Zeta-Jones was set to star in the 2003 film Beyond Borders, a social justice romance with Kevin Costner.

However, when Zeta-Jones learned she was pregnant with her second child, she backed out of the project.

Costner quit shortly after, and they almost shelved the film entirely.

The role ultimately went to Angelina Jolie, who would herself become a mother thanks to her involvement with the film.

Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, while shooting in Cambodia.

Jodie Foster was originally meant to star in the 1999 action thriller Double Jeopardy as the woman whose husband framed her for murder.

But when Foster found out she was pregnant with her first son, Charles Bernard, she felt the physical stunts required for the role would prove too much for her.

Ashley Judd stepped into the role, and Foster wasn’t on maternity leave for very long.

Later that year, the Silence of the Lambs star returned to the silver screen as the titular lead in the less taxing historical romantic drama, Anna and the King.

Annette Bening was set to play Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns before Michelle Pfeiffer took on the role.

Bening found out she was pregnant and decided that it was too hard to hide a baby bump in skintight pleather.

According to Burton, they were well into pre-production and had done “wardrobe things” when she got the news.

Audrey Hepburn was initially considered for the role of Maria in the 1961 film adaptation of the Broadway musical West Side Story.

But when she learned she was pregnant, she decided to take a year off work to focus on her pregnancy.

Wise and Robbins replaced Hepburn with Natalie Wood, and West Side Story went on to receive 12 Academy Award nominations, bringing home 10 of those golden statues.

Melanie Griffith was considered for the female lead in the 1998 dramedy As Good As It Gets.

But when she learned she was pregnant with Stella, her daughter with then-husband Antonio Banderas, she turned down the role.

Helen Hunt went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her role as the love interest to Jack Nicholson’s endearingly bigoted curmudgeon.

Rebecca Budig, Kari Wuhrer, Lesli Kay, and Teresa Castillo are four of the pregnant actresses who were written off of General Hospital.

Wuhrer claims that producers stated outright that they were killing her off because of that.

Some actresses like Jodie Foster and Robin Wright chose to take a break from acting to focus on their families, while others like Janet Hubert-Whitten and Hunter Tylo fought back against wrongful termination due to pregnancy.

However, for many actresses, the decision was made for them, and they lost out on career opportunities due to their pregnancies.

It’s worth noting that pregnancy discrimination is illegal under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 in the United States, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

However, it can be difficult for actresses to prove that they were not hired or were fired due to their pregnancy, especially in an industry where contracts and job offers can be withdrawn for any reason.

While progress has been made in recent years towards gender equality in Hollywood, the fact that actresses still lose roles due to pregnancy serves as a reminder that there is still a long way to go.

As Lisa Bonet once said, “I think there’s still a great deal of inequality that exists in the business, and I think actresses are still being objectified in a way that’s not right and not true and not reflective of real life.”