{"id":105494,"date":"2025-10-06T18:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/105494\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T18:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:16:28","slug":"barbara-eden-reveals-how-her-pregnancy-unexpectedly-affected-i-dream-of-jeannie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/105494\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Eden Reveals How Her Pregnancy Unexpectedly Affected \u2018I Dream of Jeannie\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actress Barbara Eden<\/a><\/strong>, 94, is sharing some inside information about the beloved sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie<\/a>, which had a five-season run until 1970.<\/p>\n

In a September 2025 interview with People magazine<\/a>, Eden explained why the first season of the show, which began airing in September 1965, was shot in black-and-white. According to Eden, the series, which followed the genie Jeannie (Eden) and Captain\/Major Anthony “Tony” Nelson (Larry Hagman<\/a><\/strong>), wasn’t colorized because of her pregnancy with her late son, Matthew Ansara.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pregnant. I was going to have a baby, and so they started fast, and I think they thought I was going to die or something. They didn’t want to invest the money in the color,” said Eden to the publication.<\/p>\n

Barbara Eden Opened up About Being Pregnant on the ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ Set<\/p>\n

While speaking to People magazine in 2001, Eden said she found out she was pregnant “the same day that\u00a0I Dream of Jeannie\u00a0sold.”<\/p>\n

“I was thrilled. I was so happy, but I knew they’d have to replace me. Well, God love [I Dream of Jeannie\u00a0creator] Sidney Sheldon. He got to work, and we did the first 13 shows with me pregnant with Matthew,” said Eden in the People magazine interview.<\/p>\n

In a 2011 interview on CNN<\/a>, Eden clarified that she looked pregnant when filming I Dream of Jeannie Season 1. She explained that Jeannie’s many scarves and clever use of the show’s furniture helped hide her stomach.<\/p>\n

She also said she didn’t have difficulty raising her son while starring as Jeannie. She stated that her ex-husband, actor Michael Ansara, whom she divorced in 1974, was “a wonderful husband” and attentive father.<\/p>\n

“We had a great housekeeper, [and] two grandmothers that were there, a lot. I was home generally from Friday through Monday,” said Eden in the interview.<\/p>\n

Barbara Eden Raved About Motherhood in a 2016 Interview<\/p>\n

Eden raved about motherhood in a 2016 interview on OWN. <\/a>She said being a mother to her son “was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened in [her] life.” She also noted that her child died in 2001 following an unintentional drug overdose. He was 35.<\/p>\n

In the OWN interview, Eden said she prefers to “remember the good times” in Matthew’s life.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I remember. I don’t dwell on the other, you know. Oh I have a lot of memories of Matthew of course. Wonderful. Because he had such a great sense of humor, he teased me all the time,” said Eden with a smile.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Sep 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Barbara Eden, 94, is sharing some inside information about the beloved sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[66267,16855,434,18,117,16858,19,17,66266],"class_list":{"0":"post-105494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-anthony-quottonyquot-nelson","9":"tag-barbara-eden","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-i-dream-of-jeannie","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-larry-hagman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}