Amber Marshall Wasn’t Really Pregnant on Heartland — She Wore a 10-Pound Silicone Suit in the Heat

If you watched Amy Fleming’s pregnancy on Heartland and wondered if Amber Marshall was pregnant in real life too, you’re not alone. The storyline felt that real, so the rumors were everywhere.

She wasn’t.

Amber filmed those episodes in Calgary in the middle of summer wearing a thick silicone prosthetic. About ten pounds, medical-grade, doesn’t breathe. She was in it for 12-hour days, in the heat.

She talked about it on the Hallmarkies Podcast. When they asked if she had fun with that storyline, she was honest about it. She said, “Fun would not be a word I would use.”

And if you go back and watch, you can see it. Those little moments where Amy is struggling to get comfortable, shifting her weight while trying to work with the horses — that wasn’t just acting. Amber was actually uncomfortable. The suit was heavy and hot and trapping everything underneath.

Since she had never been pregnant herself, she wanted to get it right. So she didn’t guess. She asked Michelle Morgan (Lou), and other moms on the crew. What morning sickness really feels like, what Braxton-Hicks feels like, how your center of gravity shifts and you walk different when you’re carrying all that extra weight in front.

She took what they told her and changed how she moved on set — how she walked, how she stood, how she got up and down.

That’s probably why it landed with viewers. She didn’t play it like a perfect TV pregnancy. She played the tiredness, the heaviness, the little daily things that make it hard.

You can hear her talk about it here:

It was a rough shoot — long days in a rubber suit in summer — but that’s what made Amy and Ty’s turn into parents feel believable.