Lisa Kudrow Had to Return to Work 10 Days After Giving Birth and Got No Maternity Leave in the 1990s: ‘It’s Insane. I Would Never Do It Now’

Lisa Kudrow recently appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” to promote the latest season of her HBO comedy series “The Comeback” and reflected on how much Hollywood has changed since the 1990s. She summed things up by revealing work was made to be such a priority at that time that she never even had a maternity leave when she gave birth to her son, Julian, in May 1998. She went right back to working and doing press.

“I had given birth to my son, and 10 days later I did ‘The Tonight Show,” Kudrow said. “And then I was in a meeting for ‘Analyze This,’ and my agents were like: ‘Yeah, we’ll be ok, you’re not shooting until July, and it’s May, it’s no big deal.’ I was like: ‘Ok, yeah, I might be by then…’ In the meeting, Billy Crystal said, ‘I mean, you look great, are you sure you’re able to do this? When did you give birth?’ And I told him, and he’s like: ‘Alright, well, we start Thursday.'”

Related Stories

MLB Opening Day 2026: Here's Where to Watch Baseball Games Online Without Cable for Free

Where to Watch the 2026 MLB Season Live Online Free

Kudrow assumed that the production would be starting immediately but that she’d be filming her scenes later on so she could recover from giving birth as she was only a supporting actor and did not need to be in every scene. Her assumption that production would start in May and she would film in July was wrong.

“It was: ‘So today’s Monday, and then Thursday you have to fly to New York,’” she said. “I remember my husband’s parents were visiting from France, my parents were around, everyone around me went: ‘Of course you can do it,’ and I said: ‘But it’s wrong, I have a newborn!’ ‘… ‘But a baby nurse will go with you, look after the baby, baby won’t remember anything, it’s fine… you go do it.’ I went: ‘Alright, I don’t know,’ like, you know, your hormones are just like… ‘Alright, I mean, I guess!’”

“It’s insane,” Kudrow summarized. “I would never do it now. I thought this was insane. Everybody else thought [it’s fine]… I just deferred to everybody else and thought, ‘I guess it’s okay to go back to work immediately.’ I’m not mad at anybody. It was at a time when work was priority and everything else has to accommodate. That was sort of the ethos at that time.”

Watch Kudrow’ full interview on “CBS This Morning” in the video below.