American Housewife star Katy Mixon previews season 3

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Season 3 of American Housewife premieres on ABC this week, but it’s already a whole different experience for Katy Mixon, who plays the show’s titular matriarch, Katie Otto. There’s one simple reason for that: She’s not pregnant this time! Mixon was pregnant during filming of both season 1 and season 2, so now she’s feeling a little lighter on season 3.

“I’m thrilled to have my babies, but now I’m not going to be working a 65-hour week while growing a foot inside me,” Mixon tells EW. “It’s a new situation that I have my arms open wide to.”

Mixon says the American Housewife team mostly hid her pregnancies by dressing her in triple-XL-sized shirts and continually increasing the height of the main set’s kitchen island that she often stands behind. That pressure is now gone, which is good because Katie Otto might be considering a major life change of her own.

As it says in the title, Katie is a housewife in the upper-class community of Westport, Connecticut, and she clearly loves her kids: rebellious Taylor (Meg Donnelly), scheming Oliver (Daniel DiMaggio), and quirky Anna-Kat (Julia Butters). But as they continue to grow up this season, Katie may find herself considering a return to the working lifestyle. In one episode last season, Katie ran into an old co-worker (Mary Holland) and revealed that she sometimes wondered how her life would be different if she hadn’t abandoned her career to focus on raising kids.

“Katie is a career girl, so I think that’s always in the back of her head: ‘What would life be if I went back to work?’” Mixon says. “She’s trying to find her place and figure out what the next 10 years look like. It’s going to be interesting.”

American Housewife season 3 premieres Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

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