Why Bridgerton Cut Francesca’s Miscarriage Storyline From Season 4

As Bridgerton fans know, the Netflix series frequently takes creative license with the Julia Quinn source novels that inspired it.

For an understandable reason, one heartbreaking moment from the book When He Was Wicked was cut from season four of the show.

During the recent season, Francesca (played by Hannah Dodd) suspected that she was pregnant with her husband John’s child after he died in his sleep as the result of a sudden cerebral aneurysm.

After undergoing an exam, the character found out that she wasn’t pregnant, while in the original book, she actually discovers that she is pregnant, and later suffers a miscarriage, which shapes Francesca’s grief and fertility throughout the story.

Speaking to Swooon, showrunner Jess Brownell explained that she and the Bridgerton writers decided to cut Francesca’s miscarriage storyline because they felt it would have made the tone of season four “too morbid”.

“Ultimately, I think John’s death and the funeral are already in so many ways such a departure from the tone of the show,” she explained.

“I think episode seven has hints of lightness, but it is a much darker version of Bridgerton in a way that I think is really interesting, and especially in the way we get to watch the family come together.”

Despite not wanting to adapt the darker miscarriage storyline from the source novels, Jess still intends to explore Francesca’s fertility journey in future seasons.

“We’re still very interested in honouring the fertility storyline… and we will continue honouring [it] in her future season,” she said.

This isn’t the only major change to Francesca’s storylines on the show, though.

Her love interest in the books, Michael Stirling, has been gender-swapped in the show, meaning Francesca’s future love story – and, indeed, fertility story – could unfold very differently on screen.

All four seasons of Bridgerton are available to stream on Netflix.