Barbara Eden almost did not bring I Dream of Jeannie into existence.

The actress, 91, appeared on the June 19 edition of I Choose Me with Jennie Garth. Eden and Garth, both 53, costarred in the 1989 television series Brand New Life, which Garth mentioned in a prior episode with Eden as her first acting work.

During the June 19 show, the 90210 star asked Eden about wearing the legendary Jeannie costume, which included pink and red leggings, a matching bralette, a headpiece, and a short jacket that revealed her navel (but not her belly button). Eden claimed she enjoyed wearing the outfit and “never” felt objectified.

However, there was one serious difficulty. “The first year of Jeannie, I was pregnant,” she informed Garth. She and her husband, Michael Ansara, “had tried to have a baby for so long,” she recalls. “Finally, I became pregnant. And I found out the same day that they told me Jeannie was going on the show.”

She contacted the founder, Sidney Sheldon, and said, “I need to talk to you.” I really need to talk to you in person.” She met him at supper, and despite the dubious news regarding Jeannie, she was “so happy.”

“I was happy about the show too, but happier that I was pregnant,” she told me. “I sat down there with a big grin on my face and said, ‘You know, I’m pregnant, and I can’t do your show.'” Nonetheless, she said, “I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.”

She informed him, “I just had to let you know so you could recast it.” But Sheldon advised her to wait a few days and “see if we can work this out.” They opted to keep Eden as Jeannie but artistically cover her pregnancy.

However, it wasn’t always simple. “I remember one time on the set, I came into work, and there was a bikini,” she says. “I looked at it, and I said, ‘I can’t wear that.'”

The customer proceeded to tell Director Gene Nelson that Eden could not wear the swimsuit. “And Gene, who was a close friend of mine at the time, stepped up to my dressing room and said, ‘Barbara, you’re never a diva.'” Why don’t you put on the bathing suit?”

“I said, ‘Gene, I am pregnant,'” she recalls. She consented to wear the swimsuit, but not in front of the crew.

“I put it on, and Gene came to the door and said, ‘Uh-oh.'” Okay, I get what you mean. “I see what you mean,” she recalled. “They put a tire on my tummy,” Eden remembers as the remedy, putting towels on top of the tire to conceal what it was.

Garth revealed that she landed a role in the comedy What I Like About You and got pregnant soon after the pilot. She recalls that they went to “great lengths” to conceal her bump.

Eden claimed that I Dream of Jeannie mostly utilized “lots of material” in front of her to conceal her bump.

I Dream of Jeannie finally aired from 1965 until 1970. Eden gave birth to her son, Matthew Ansara, in August 1965.