Gabrielle Carteris Asked 90210 Creator Aaron Spelling for ‘Blessing’ Before Getting Pregnant

Gabrielle Carteris had a hunch her pregnancy would change things on the Beverly Hills, 90210 set.

The actress, known by fans of the beloved teen drama for her role as Andrea Zuckerman, appeared on the July 25 episode of her podcast 9021OMG, alongside on-screen husband Mark Damon Espinoza.

The two talked about Andrea’s character arc with costars Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, one that many fans have taken fault with over the years.

After being one of the best and brightest during the West Beverly years, Andrea’s time in college is a little more uncertain. She ultimately meets and falls in love with Jesse (Espinoza) in a whirlwind romance that sees the couple quickly married and welcoming daughter Hannah after an unplanned pregnancy.

“There are many reasons I left, many reasons,” she told her former costars. “One is that I don’t think they knew how to write for me anymore.”

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The pregnancy storyline was written to coincide with Carteris’ own pregnancy, she explains, something she spoke to showrunner Aaron Spelling about.

“From when I went to your dad, Tori, and said I wanted a baby, he was so shocked that I had gone to him. He said he really thought I was gonna come and tell him that I was pregnant, but I actually asked to have lunch with him to talk to him about Charlie and I wanting to get pregnant,” she recalls.

The late producer respected that Carteris asked and didn’t just go ahead with the idea first. He gave his blessing. Her caveat? “I said, ‘But I don’t want to hide it,’ you know? I really didn’t want to hide it behind books or whatever, and that was not something that was common in those days.

She was grateful that Aaron was “so respectful,” adding, “He didn’t have me hide it. and that’s when Mark came on to be the father of my baby.”

The events felt surprising for the character. Combined with the young pregnancy angle, it launched a thousand thinkpieces.

“So much happened. I mean, The New York Times wrote stuff like, ‘How dare you have a smart person…’ You know, like you’ve done this to Andrea, and she would never. Smart people, they wouldn’t get pregnant,” she shared.

“I wrote back. I did a whole thing saying, ‘That’s ridiculous. Intellect has nothing to do with this.’ ”

It was the beginning of the end for her character, she believes. “Anyway, they didn’t know how to write for me after that, and it was just a matter of time. I was wanting something more, I think, and they just — it wasn’t going to happen. So I moved on.”

Spelling and Garth both joked that Carteris “didn’t ask us” about their opinions. Carteris replied, “I was really shy. We’ve talked about this before. I didn’t know how to talk about how I felt on the show with you guys.”

Espinoza was surprised to learn Carteris “never had that conversation” with her costars. She replied, “They didn’t even know until… I think everything just happened because I was so over [it], I so felt like I didn’t belong.”

Espinoza, who recently reunited with Carteris on screen in Middlehood, recalls coming into the cast himself.

“You guys were the most famous young people on the planet. I lived in Chicago right before that, and I would get in line at the grocery store, and your pictures would be on every magazine on the little stands that are by the checkout counters… that was the furthest thing from my reality,” he shared.

“I was doing theater in Chicago, and all of a sudden, I’m on set with these people, and I could feel the panic, that panic attack. Jennifer Grant was the first person that came up and said hi. And she made me feel very much at home. She’s very sweet,” he said of the actress who played Celeste, Steve Sanders’ college girlfriend.

On the set, Espinoza remembers, “I saw you guys around, but we hadn’t been formally introduced. I think it was Leslie. I can’t remember now, said, ‘Do you wanna meet Gab?’ because we didn’t have a chemistry read. I got the role and was thrown into it.”

“I go through this big crowd of people to this little waiting area back where Gab was sitting with some other people talking, and they introduced us. And the minute Gab got up and shook my hand and hugged me, I thought, ‘Oh my god. It’s safe,’ because I could see it in your eyes. I could see just — and this isn’t bulls—, I could see how good of a person you were. So I could take a real breath at that point and go, ‘Okay.’ “