Comments (0)Marissa Jaret Winokur
Surrogate Stress
June 26, 2009
Tony Award-winner Marissa Jaret Winokur has big news for future moms: you don’t have to actually be pregnant to get zaftig.
Ms. Winokur, 36, host of the new TV weight loss dance show delicately titled “Dance Your [Expletive] Off,” says she put on baby weight when she was expecting—but not in the physical sense.
Ms. Winokur is a survivor of cervical cancer, and she and her husband, TV writer Judah Miller, decided to have a child via a surrogate. They now have an 11-month-old son, Zev Isaac Miller.
Ms. Winokur, who portrayed Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway version of “Hairspray,” gained 25 pounds during and after the pregnancy. “[It was] total stress,” she said. “You don’t actually have to carry the baby to gain weight.”
She did exercise, mind you. “When I wasn’t working, if I had an hour [and] my husband wasn’t home from work yet, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna run on the treadmill,’” she said. “[But sometimes] you have an hour and the last thing you wanna do is get on a treadmill.”
Her show, which premieres on Oxygen next week, is a combo between “The Biggest Loser” and “Dancing With The Stars,” she said. “I hosted the whole season and didn’t lose a pound,” Ms. Winokur said. “ I’m like, `Oh my God, this is insane.’”