"Criminal Minds" season 10 finale shocked fans when they saw the exit of Jennifer Love Hewitt's character Kate - but her character's reasons for leaving the BAU are very similar to Jennifer Love Hewitt's explanation for exiting "Criminal Minds." With a due date around the same time as "Criminal Minds" season 11 would start filming, Hewitt wants to dedicate herself to her baby on the way.

Showrunner Erica Messer told EW, "Jennifer wanted to be able to give this second baby everything she gave her first, and that's taking time off to be a full-time mom. Because she's due in July, when we would start shooting season 11, timing-wise there was no way for her to do both, to be able to give that baby everything she wanted to give that baby and still be on our show."

With a due date that coincides with when "Criminal Minds" would start filming season 11, it would just be too hectic for pregnant Jennifer Love Hewitt to juggle a newborn baby, her first child - Autumn, born in November 2013 - and being on set.

"It felt like we had every opportunity to write to the truth of it," Messer added. "She's having another baby. Although on the show she hasn't had, physically, two babies, she does have two kids: She has Meg, who she's been raising since she was an infant, and we wrote in that the character is going to have another baby. There was an opportunity there to write towards the truth."

"It's a bittersweet idea of, 'Life is full of choices and they define who you are.' She makes the decision to leave the team for a while. It's really lovely and real, not only because it was happening off-screen, but because I know those things happen in real life too," Messer said.