'Grey's Anatomy' star Kelly McCreary is pregnant: 'I actually screamed in shock'

The news was first shared exclusively with People.

"I actually screamed in shock when I saw pregnant," McCreary told the outlet. "I mean, I just wasn't expecting it. I had really been mentally and emotionally preparing myself for the possibility that it might take us some time to conceive. So, I was genuinely shocked."

This will be her first child with husband Pete Chatmon, whom she met on the Grey's set and then married in 2019. The 44-year-old director has additionally done work on hit shows such as Grown-ish and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 

While McCreary "took some persuading" to start a family because of her career goals, she can't be more excited to become a first-time mom.

"I'm very lucky to have a partner who is just rah, rah, eager for this child to come into our life and find out all of the ways that being parents will disrupt and challenge everything that we have planned," McCreary said. "But because we are doing it together, we will be able to roll with it. And because this child is so desired and so loved, whatever happens will be the right thing, and we'll make it work."

Prior to the pregnancy news, McCreary shared a glimpse from the first day of shooting Grey's 18th season last week:

McCreary also called Grey 's costars Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and Caterina Scorsone "tremendously helpful supportive resources."

"I really couldn't be in a better workplace environment to have this experience," she continued. "It's such a parent-friendly and pregnant person-friendly environment."

In the show, Maggie is the co-head of cardiothoracic surgery and the half-sister of Dr. Meredith Grey (Pompeo), which makes her something of a pseudo sister to Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Scorsone), who is the actual sister to the late Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey)—Meredith's deceased husband and one-half of one of the most beloved television couples of all time. (Sorry, Grey's Anatomy demands run-on sentences to explain the incredibly nuanced web between its ever-changing cast of characters since 2005.)

McCreary concluded to People that she doesn't know if her real-life pregnancy will be woven into Maggie and Winston's story but teased "real transformation" as an overarching theme of Season 18.