The actress playing Daphne is pregnant in season eight, in real life. It was written off as her gaining weight. I thought something looked different about her.
shareI've yet to see every episode, so I can't really say much, although I'm making my way through them now.
shareYou could tell she was pregnant in the season 8 first episode. I know it sounds wrong but it did kind of ruin the story a little bit her being pregnant in real life as it was fairly obvious.
shareI thought it was handled well. Even though these physical changes were becoming obvious there is no mention that Dahne is gaining weight and eating too much until later on.
The psychological reasons given that she did not feel she could live up to Niles' fantasy of her over the years did not make sense. That would be a reason for her to be anorexic, more like Maris.
I thought they handled it well. Season 8 is one of my least favorites.
I thought the explanation about her weight gain made sense. The unseen Maris was unnaturally thin and anorexic. But Niles was married to her for years, so in Daphne's mind, that's what appealed to him. Daphne knew she'd been Niles "fantasy woman" for years and she was afraid of not living up to his fantasy of her.
If Daphne put on weight, it would be like she was setting up a sort of "shield" around herself and she could keep Niles at bay for a while. I think she was avoiding the possibility of disappointing Niles.
However, I do like the way they handled her weight gain. Instead of the usual "hide the pregnant actress behind the sofa" or have her carry huge shopping bags and other props, they just put her weight "out there", so to speak. Also, maybe it was the too tight clothes or just the way Jane Leeves carried, the actress never really looked pregnant to me. She just looked like she was gaining a lot of weight.
She looked terrible in some of those episodes and I'm sorry a woman newly in love to a very thin man is not going to eat like a pig and gain weight.