Gina Rodriguez

Pregnant Gina Rodriguez Reveals Her Husband Is ‘Training' to Be Her Doula

The "Jane the Virgin" star and Joe LoCicero, an MMA fighter, will welcome their first child later this year

Joe Locicero and Gina Rodriguez attend Netflix Indies Brunch at 2020 Sundance Film Festival at Firewood on January 27, 2020 in Park City, Utah.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix

Gina Rodriguez’s husband, Joe LoCicero, is “training” to be her doula. 

“He’s really next level,” the pregnant actor, 38, told Entertainment Tonight, adding that LoCicero, 36, has also been watching videos of live births. 

“He’s a martial artist and so it’s basically… he’s cornering the fight of my life,” she explained. “I wouldn’t call it a fight — I would say, it’s… me climbing my Mount Everest and he’s gonna corner me for it.”

Doulas help mothers before, during and after childbirth by offering encouragement and an understanding of the physiology of birth.

“He’s just magical,” she gushed. “He’s definitely the better half, so I’m hoping that he’ll just go on in there and pull our baby.”

The mom-to-be said she’s preparing for the big day by enrolling in “hardcore prenatal classes” that focus on strengthening the pelvic floor muscles.

Rodriguez and LoCicero met in 2016 on the set of her CW series “Jane the Virgin” (he played a stripper during an episode in season two). They later reconnected at a boxing gym and tied the knot in 2019The couple announced in July that they are expecting their first child later this year.

“Dating Joe was a new experience for me because I put myself first,” Rodriguez told Cosmopolitan in 2019. “For so long, I put every man in front of me,” she explained. “As a successful woman, it is so hard because of our cultural norms that, like, the man has to be the breadwinner! And the man has to be the more powerful one. It was so difficult for me to find a man who didn’t want me to dim my light for his ego.”

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