The White Lotus star Carrie Coon reveals show cut out controversial transgender child storyline

Carrie Coon has revealed a major storyline was quietly cut from The White Lotus amid growing political tensions in the US.

The actress, who appears in season 3 of the hit HBO series, shared that her character Laurie originally had a non-binary child.

This element was removed from the script after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Coon explained that the scene, while brief, added emotional weight to a key political disagreement between Laurie and her toxic travel companions Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Kate (Leslie Bibb).

The group’s dynamics turn when Kate suggests she may have voted for Trump, prompting a charged debate among the women.

Coon said, “You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans, and going by they/them.”

“You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting.”

The moment was intended to make Kate’s comment about supporting Trump even more personally painful for Laurie.

However, the show’s creator, Mike White, ultimately decided to pull the scene from the episode after Trump returned to office in late 2024. 

She continued, “It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world.”

She also revealed the scene had been written before the election results, and only later did it become clear how dramatically the issue would escalate.

Coon added, “The episode was written before the election.”

“Considering the way the Trump administration has weaponised the cultural war against transgender people even more since then when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation.”

Just hours into his second term, Trump signed executive orders limiting gender recognition to male and female, explicitly excluding gender identity.

He also pulled funding from DEI programs across federal agencies.