Elsbeth’s Carra Patterson Quietly Welcomes 3rd Baby After Shocking Exit

Carra Patterson revealed she secretly welcomed her third daughter with husband Ruffin Prentiss III months after a shocking exit from CBS’ Elsbeth.

Patterson, 41, announced the news via Instagram ahead of the new episode of Elsbeth, which premiered on Thursday, December 4. The actress, who plays Kaya on the show, gave birth to Cleopatra in November and also shares Cressida, 4, and Coretta, 2, with Prentiss.

“We’re over the moon to introduce baby Cleopatra!” Patterson told People about the exciting news. “Our home is three times louder now, but Cressida and Coretta are loving their new big-sister titles and have become the cutest little helpers.”

Patterson’s baby news comes as fans are still adjusting to her exit from Elsbeth. Season 2, which concluded in May, ending with Patterson departing the show as a series regular.

“It’s been in development since the beginning of season 2,” lead Carrie Preston exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “We wanted to honor her and elevate her to detective. So it was very exciting when that happened for the character. Not as exciting for us though because we love Carra. I love Carra and I obviously love playing with her.”

Preston, 58, promised that wasn’t the last fans will see of Kaya, adding, “She’s still on the show — it’s just in a different capacity. It’s nice because it adds some conflict and it adds some stuff for Elsbeth to wrestle with. It’s going to deepen my character.”

The season 3 premiere in October showed Elsbeth (Preston) return to work as Kaya adjusted to an undercover assignment in Washington D.C, which allowed the show’s creative team to expand the world of the hit police procedural.

“I wish I could say there was some grand plan but a lot of it is we have to just see the way the conversation goes in the writers’ room,” executive producer Jonathan Tolins exclusively told Us. “When there’s a surprise for us, that excites us. We know that’s what we should be pursuing.”

Tolins also teased that Captain Wagner’s (Wendell Pierce) life will not get more screen time.

“We introduce some new characters who test Elsbeth’s feelings about honesty and trust. She is cultivating new friendships because of Kaya’s exit,” he shared before confirming we will “definitely see” more of Patterson’s character.

Preston also spoke to Us about how the show will roll with the changes.

“[This season] it works so well with the detectives. But with every case that Elsbeth goes on, it is not going to be the same detective every time. So we already had that set up with different detectives stepping in and now we’re doing the same thing with the uniformed officers,” Preston explained. “She’ll click with people in different ways.”

The actress went on to share that she enjoyed the shakeup three seasons into the hit CBS show.

“It keeps the show fresh and it keeps Elsbeth on her game more. She’s working with newer people, younger people and people that she hasn’t met before. So she’s getting to know people,” she noted. “I don’t know if we will ever land on just one. Anything can happen. But I really love the new people that we are working with now.”

Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.