UPDATE: Monday, January 24 — Lea Michele removed the photo of Ever from her Instagram less than a day after posting. She shared a different photo with Ever facing away from the camera. “The best weekend celebrating this amazing man and father. Ever and I love you so much Z!❤️” she captioned the family snap.
Original story: What a cutie! Lea Michele shared a photo of son Ever’s face for the first time, and he’s just as adorable as fans imagined.
Michele, 35, shared a snap of her husband Zandy Reich on the beach while holding baby Ever. The two wore matching white outfits in the picture, shot by photographer Ashley Barrett. The father-son duo were also twinning with their sunglasses, leaving only part of Ever’s face exposed. Prior to this snap, Michele kept Ever’s face out of her social media posts, coming up with creative ways to avoid showing the baby’s smile.
However, it seems she couldn’t resist showing off Ever’s happy face for the AYR clothing brand president’s birthday. “Greatest man, father, husband and friend. I wake up every day so thankful that you are ours Z,” the Glee alum wrote via Instagram on Sunday, January 23. “Happy Birthday! Ever and I love you so much. ❤️”
Reich, 39, and Michele were first linked in July 2017 after years of friendship. They announced their engagement in April 2018 and tied the knot in March 2019.
“I get to be married to my best friend, which is the greatest thing in the entire world,” the actress told Us Weekly a month after her wedding.
She continued, “At this point in my life, I feel the most grounded — and happiest — I ever have.”
Those feelings have only continued amid her journey as a parent. “I can’t believe my son is turning 1 tomorrow. Even now saying the words ‘my son’ still feels so unbelievable,” the “Christmas in New York” singer wrote via Instagram in August. “All of the sayings are true — you will experience a type of love you have never felt before, you will forever be changed, it all goes so fast — they are all so true.”
The happiness comes after Michele struggled to conceive Ever due to her polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis (PCOS) diagnosis.
“It’s easy to manage it in your daily life, but when you’re trying to conceive, it’s much harder, especially if you have extremely irregular periods. You never really know when you can get pregnant,” the Spring Awakening alum explained to Katherine Schwarzenegger during a March 2021 Instagram Live. “On top of that, I had to have multiple procedures to remove polyps and cysts and scar tissue.”
Michele got pregnant just as she and her husband had given up trying, but she continued to have health problems throughout her pregnancy.
“I started bleeding terribly, horribly,” the Brunette Ambition author revealed to Schwarzenegger. “I had to tell my mom I was pregnant in the bathroom. That lasted my entire first trimester. I experienced very heavy bleeding, some which was scary to the point that we rushed in the middle of the night to the hospital. Probably every other day, we were certain that this time was definitely it. I was put on an extreme amount of medication, progesterone, to help sustain this pregnancy, and I was put on bed rest for my whole first trimester. That was just horrible, absolutely horrible.”
Ever, who was breech, arrived via C-section in August 2020. “Everyone’s happy and healthy, and they’re extremely grateful,” a source told Us at the time. “He’s been an easy baby so far.”
