Gillian Anderson recalls battling ‘pregnancy guilt’ during The X Files filming

Gillian Anderson feared she would be fired from The X Files if she hadn’t returned for filming ten days after giving birth.

In a conversation with Today’s anchor Savannah Guthrie, the 55-year-old actress expressed regret over prioritizing her work over health following the birth of her now 29-year-old daughter Piper via C-section.

“I think if I didn’t feel so guilty that I got pregnant in the first season, that I might have taken better care of myself and been more thoughtful about what I needed,” she shared. “And been more thoughtful about what I needed for my best interest at the time.”

“But I think I was so wrapped up in, ‘I almost got fired, I messed up, I’ll do whatever they say,’” Anderson continued.

“So yeah, 10 days after a C-section. But we’re still talking about it, right? It’s interesting. Cause, whatever it was, 30 years ago.”

The Crown alum expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Grazia Magazine last month, noting, she didn’t know “what the f*** I was doing” after the birth of her first child.

“You’re upside down and you feel, sometimes, like you’re slightly going mad,” she confessed.

Anderson welcomed Piper with her then husband Clyde Klotz in 1994.

The actress also shares two sons, Felix, 17, and Oscar, 15 with her ex-boyfriend, Mark Griffths.