Zoe McLellan on Wanting to Be a Mom: 'I Went from Not Knowing If I Wanted Children' to Being Ready to 'Have Sex with a Tree'

The latest episode of PEOPLE’s Mom Talk features four celebrity moms discussing their experiences in conceiving their children, from their various degrees of physical difficulty to whether they were sure about wanting kids at all.

And in NCIS: New Orleans star Zoe McLellan‘s case, the switch from “maybe one day” to “yes, right now” was fairly abrupt.

“I went from not knowing if I wanted children at all to reaching this point where I was ready to have sex with a tree,” jokes the single mom, 41, whogot pregnant with her 2½-year-old son Sebastian the first time she had sex with her now ex-husband.

Tony Barson/FilmMagic

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McLellan, who also starred in JAG as Petty Officer Jennifer Coates from 2001 to 2005, explains that her desire to become a mother not only seemingly came out of nowhere, but was extremely strong.

“That’s how badly I wanted to procreate,” she says, adding that she sought out a partner who was interested in becoming a father and not just a fling.

“Like, suddenly I wanted to be a mother. My whole body was screaming for a, ‘Child! Child! Child!’ ”

Bordertown actress Jacqueline Piñol had an experience similar to McLellan’s in the sense that she let the universe take the reins — a universe that bestowed son Atlas on her and husband Jonny Blu this past February.

“We didn’t know if we wanted kids. We rescue dogs,” says 37-year-old Piñol, who also recently appeared in Criminal Minds and Quantum Break. “We have four dogs — we’d gladly have 10 dogs if we had a big-enough property.

“We were like, ‘Oh, if it happens it happens, if not, fine,’ ” she adds. “Sure enough, the first time we’re not careful, boom.”

— Jen Juneau