TikTok influencers Abby and Matt Howard shared the tragic news with followers that they recently endured a pregnancy loss.
“It is with very heavy hearts that we share about the loss of our baby girl born far too soon,” the couple announced in a joint statement via Instagram on Saturday, September 27.
Abby, 26, was 17 weeks into their latest pregnancy, having announced in August that they were expecting their third child. (The influencers are also parents to Griffin, 3, and August, 2.)
“At a routine pregnancy appointment, our doctor could not find a heartbeat. Shortly after they sent us in for an ultrasound where the technician said words we will never forget, ‘I am so sorry I do not have good news,’ ” they explained. “That is when we got the gender reveal we never hoped for, and also the news that our baby had a genetic condition that took her life around 17 weeks’ gestation.”
Reflecting on their traumatic experience, the content creators said that discovering they’d lost a child “felt unimaginable.”
“The grief is absolutely devastating,” they wrote. “But we feel so much gratitude for the time that we did get to have with her. And we still have hope. Hope has continued to show up for us in so many ways.”
Abby and Matt, 27, explained that they would now “grieve and continue to think of ways to honor her life offline.”
“Thoughts and prayers are more than welcome,” their statement concluded. “Thank you everyone for celebrating this precious life with us for the past 17 weeks.”
Other parenting influencers and TikTok stars offered their support in the Instagram comments, along with many fans expressing their condolences.
“Sending you all so much love,” TikTok star Avery Woods replied, with Devin Cordle offering similar sentiments: “I’m so so sorry, Abby. We are praying and sending y’all virtual hugs. Love you so much.”
Influencer Haylee Hess added: “Sending so much love and prayers❤️🩹 love you and your precious family so much.”
Abby and Matt have more than 8 million followers via YouTube and 5.3 million on TikTok. They launched their joint YouTube channel as newlyweds in 2019 and viewers have watched their family grow over the past six years.
In June, the couple opened up about their approach to filming family videos during an appearance on the “Jinger and Jeremy” podcast. Matt and Abby explained that they try to limit use of devices outside of working hours to make sure their whole family remains active.
“When we’re not working, we’re not working. Like, that’s it,” Abby said. “It’s really hard, especially for the way Matt’s brain operates. It’s really hard to, like, dabble in anything. It’s like he’s all in or all out. And for me, I just don’t want my kids to see me [on the phone]. If I’m able to put this boundary up then I, for sure, want to have the phones away. We don’t just have cameras out.”
She went on, “Boundaries means, like, literally no phones. We’ll text family members and friends and stuff, like, send a text or FaceTime people when the kids are around, but it’s not like we’re making videos or stuff like that. It’s been really, really refreshing, honestly, because it felt like a lot for a while — social media can feel all consuming if you let it be and it felt good to reclaim some boundaries.”
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