(Photo Credit: Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for The Weinstein Co.)

Kerry Washington may have kept her wedding and her wish to start a family a secret, but her friends and family were not at all surprised.

"You could smell that she wanted this whole life: the baby, the husband, the in-laws [and] the house," Washington's friend, the legendary actress Diahann Carroll, told E! News.

The "Scandal" star, 37, secretly married former football player Nnamdi Asomugha in June 2013. She gave birth to their first child, daughter Isabelle, April 21, but never made an official announcement.

But those close to her know how much she wanted motherhood.

Why Kerry Washington Feels 'Really Blessed' Being a Mom

"She wants it," Carroll, 78, told E! at the Women In Film's Crystal + Lucy Awards last week, where Washington was honored and made her first post-baby red carpet appearance. "She wants this baby and her husband wants the baby, so the baby is coming into an absolutely perfect situation."

The notoriously private actress last week shared some joyous sentiments about motherhood during a chat with the Los Angeles Times.

"I will say I feel really, really blessed," she said. "I just feel really blessed that I'm kind of living extraordinary dreams come true in my work life and in my personal life."