Monique Coleman, who starred in the popular High School Musical film franchise, revealed that she experienced a pregnancy loss last year and was able to lean on her former on-screen love interest, Corbin Bleu, for support.
In an interview with People, Coleman – who reunited with her HSM co-star to film the Lifetime holiday movie, A Christmas Dance Reunion – noted that before production started in fall 2020, she was expecting.
“I thought that I was going to be doing the movie pregnant,” she said. “If I was pregnant, I was excited to be with Corbin and [his wife] Sasha because I knew that they would be able to carry me and hold me through that experience. And when I wasn’t, they were also able to be there for me in a way that I can’t even really describe.”
She recalled that while shooting on Oct. 15, which was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, Bleu and his wife lit a candle in her honour.
“They sent a photo and a prayer and told me that they were thinking of me,” she said. “We were in quarantine in our respective rooms, but to be able to talk to them about that and to bond with them in this really difficult time where I’m alone in a room by myself, but not to feel alone, was just so special.”
It’s comforting to see how the former Wildcats truly are “all in this together,” particularly considering this wasn’t Coleman’s first pregnancy loss. In 2019, she channeled her grief into art by sharing a performance piece titled “Unborn” on Instagram alongside a message about her miscarriage that August: “For the first time in my life, I couldn’t string together eloquent enough words to express what I had been through in a meaningful and impactful way. However, when I learned that 1 in 4 women experiences this devastating and unexplainable loss I knew I couldn’t remain silent. I decided to use the language of dance to say what I couldn’t with words.”
