Gillian Anderson opened up on TODAY about the pressure she felt to return to "The X Files” set just 10 days after giving birth.
Anderson welcomed her first child, daughter Piper, in 1994, when the hit science-fiction drama series was in its first season.
“Ten days after you give birth — by C-section, I might add — you were back at work,” TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie said during an April 3 interview with Anderson.
“How do you feel about that now?” Savannah asked.
“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,” Anderson, 55, replied. “But I think I think I was so wrapped up in, 'I almost got fired, I messed up, I’ll do whatever they say.'”
“So, yeah, 10 days after a C-section,” she added.
C-sections are major surgeries, recovery usually takes six to eight weeks. It's not uncommon for C-section patients to experience symptoms including incisional pain, uterine contractions and hormone changes.
Anderson shares Piper, 29, with ex-husband Clyde Klotz. The Emmy-winning actor is also mom of sons Oscar, 17, and Felix, 15, with former partner Mark Griffiths.
When Anderson was pregnant with Felix, she said was taking care of herself.
“Poor Piper lived in my trailer for the first nine years of her life,” Anderson said during a conversation with People in 2008. “So now, to be able to make the choice not to work at the end of my last pregnancy — because I worked right up to the end of Piper’s — and not to work for the first six months after having Oscar was quite wonderful.”
Anderson was on TODAY to discuss her new Netflix film “Scoop” about BBC reporter Emily Maitlis’ disastrous interview with Prince Andrew about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.