Alexandra Breckenridge has opened up for the first time about the terrifying health scare her son, Jack, faced when he was younger.
The actress, known for her role as Melinda Monroe in Netflix series Virgin River, was speaking about the traumatic storyline that her character goes through in the most recent series, when she shared her own family's experience of trauma.
In season five (spoiler alert) Alexandra's character and her on-screen fiancé, Jack (played by Martin Henderson) are devastated when they learn that Mel has suffered a miscarriage. Revealing how she handled the storyline and related to the event, the star told Deadline: "I think it was just human instinct and empathy.
"I've had personal experience. One of my children was very, very sick when he was young and could have died so I have a personal connection and understanding of the emotional loss of a child."
The mother-of-two continued: "When you're a parent and you come so close to that edge of not having them anymore, I already experienced that in a different way, so I came into that scene reliving that experience. That's how I approached it, because that's what I know. And that was the most real to me, just let myself go back to that emotional point, and how that felt, and being there with it."
Alexandra, who shares her son Jack, seven, and daughter Billie, five, with her musician husband Casey Hooper, admitted that she hasn't discussed the family's difficult time publicly, but shared that she will in more detail in time.
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"Having to pick yourself up and do something which is also kind of weirdly within the circumstances of what I had to go through at the time. I haven't talked about that yet publicly, I will eventually. I didn't have to do a lot of quote-unquote, acting, so to speak. In that moment, it was all just very real to me."
Alexandra and Casey met at a party in 2012 and tied the knot three years later in an intimate and beautiful ceremony in Colorado. The family of four has enjoyed happier times recently; due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, which came to an end earlier this month, the 41-year-old has been spending plenty of time at the family home in Atlanta, Georgia.
She said on Instagram previously: "I feel like I've been cooking since I got back from dropping off my daughter at school, I'm trying to do something fun and creative with my time because SAG is on strike and I can't go back to work and I can't even talk about work.
"So, if all y'all are trying to send me messages asking about work-related things, I can't answer you and I'm really sorry about that."
Back in 2017, she told US Weekly how despite her successful acting career, family comes first. "When you have children. It just changes what's important to you," she said, adding: "Trying to find time to keep up with my hair or nails, they take me away from Jack. So, I tend to put those things off."
If you've been affected by anything in this story, visit the Star Legacy Foundation for support, resources and advice.