Imagine tuning into Days of Our Lives and seeing Marlena Evans—played by acting icon Deidre Hall—not only battling cults and evil spirits on screen, but confronting her own silent storm off-camera. At 77, Hall has just shared a revelation so intimate it’s as riveting as any soap plot: her journey to motherhood was stalled by fear of scandal—thanks to the notorious Baby M case.
That’s not a tease—it’s a life-shaping moment that resonates far beyond daytime TV.
Back in the late 1980s, Baby M made headlines as a “surrogacy disaster”—a custody showdown that soured public trust in assisted reproduction. Mary Beth Whitehead, the birth mother, reclaimed her child from the Stern family, and the court ended up voiding their surrogacy agreement.
The result? Legal chaos, broken hearts, and a reputation blow that haunted surrogacy for years.
When Hall’s husband suggested surrogacy, she froze.
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