The 38-year-old actress is currently expecting her first child and starring in the heartfelt Netflix series, 'Lost Ollie,' this month.
Gina Rodriguez's husband is ready to bring his martial arts skills to the delivery room. The actress tells ET that she and her MMA fighter husband, Joe LoCicero, are fully educating themselves on the realities of childbirth as they prepare to welcome their first baby.
"I'm taking some hardcore prenatal classes, working on that pelvic floor," Rodriguez, who is currently pregnant, tells ET's Lauren Zima, noting that they have also been watching videos of live births in preparation. "My husband is training to be my doula. He's really next level."
The couple, who met on the set of Rodriguez's CW series Jane the Virgin and wed in 2019, announced that they are expecting in an emotional video posted on July 30th -- her 38th birthday.
"He's a martial artist and so it's basically, you know, he's cornering the fight of my life," she jokes of the impending birth. "I wouldn't call it a fight -- I would say, it's like ... me climbing my Mount Everest and he's gonna corner me for it."
Not just corner -- it sounds like LoCicero will have a key role and front row seat to the whole event.
"He's magical," she gushes. "He's definitely the better half, so I'm hoping that he'll just go on in there and pull our baby out."
But before she becomes a mom in real life, Rodriguez is playing a mom in the new Netflix mini-series, Lost Ollie, out Aug. 24.
"I played mothers a few times, so it's always the irony like, 'Oh, I played moms a bunch of times but I'm not even a mom yet,'" the Jane the Virgin star says, recalling an intense desire to be a mother over the years. Now, she says she's thrilled to be part of a project that focuses not only on childhood, but on mental health. Based on the 2016 children's book Ollie's Odyssey, the heartfelt story follows the journey of a boy and his lost toy -- voiced by Jonathan Groff -- as they search for each other.
"I love that I got to do a project that deals with difficult subject matters, 'cause I miss shows that talked about grief and change and loss and, you know, mental health," she says. "It was incredibly emotional, but also therapeutic. I find that when I have to go to those spaces as an actor that can be a little tougher to live in, I actually utilize the technique of going to a very happy space 'cause then it allows me to lead my experience in a space of joy. There's so much to be grateful for, even the difficult times."
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