The Virgin River actress has opened up about her near personal experience with child loss after filming an emotional scene in the Netflix show where her character Mel suffers a miscarriage.

Virgin River’s Alexandra Breckenridge has opened up about a terrifying health scare her son Jack experienced when he was younger after filming a traumatic scene for the hit Netflix series.

The actress, who is best known for her role as Mel Monroe in the popular long-running programme discussed the traumatic storyline that her character endured during season five of the show, relating it back to her own family’s heartbreaking experience.

In the programme, Melinda and her on-screen fiancé Jack, who is played by Martin Henderson, are devastated to discover that they have lost their baby to a miscarriage.

Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe and Martin Henderson as Jack Sheridan in Virgin River (Image: Netflix)

Revealing how she personally handled the storyline, the actress told Deadline she could somewhat relate to the event in real life as she relayed her personal experience with nearly losing a child.

She said: “I think it was just human instinct and empathy. I’ve had personal experience. One of my children was very, very sick when he was young and could have died so I have a personal connection and understanding of the emotional loss of a child.”

The mum-of-two added: “When you’re a parent and you come so close to that edge of not having them anymore, I already experienced that in a different way, so I came into that scene reliving that experience.

“That’s how I approached it, because that’s what I know. And that was the most real to me, just let myself go back to that emotional point, and how that felt, and being there with it.”

Alexandra and her husband Casey tied the knot in 2015 (Image: Instagram)

Her admission came as the first time Alexandra had publicly discussed the personal matter. She shares her son Jack, seven, and daughter Billie, five, with her musician husband Casey Hooper.

Alexandra and Casey first met at a party in 2012 and were wed three years later in an intimate and beautiful ceremony in Colorado.

She said: “Having to pick yourself up and do something which is also kind of weirdly within the circumstances of what I had to go through at the time. I haven’t talked about that yet publicly, I will eventually. I didn’t have to do a lot of quote-unquote, acting, so to speak. In that moment, it was all just very real to me.”