'Bachelor'Alum Ashley Spivey Defends Decision to Announce Early Pregnancy After Stillbirth

Lauren Wellbank
·3 min read

Bachelor alumna Ashley Spivey thrilled fans on Wednesday when she announced that she and husband Steve Hunsberg are expecting. The news of her pregnancy came just five months after the 36-year-old’s son CJ was stillborn, according to E!

“As y’all all know, I just went through the IVF process, and we had decided to freeze the embryos to give my body a little more time to rest,” she wrote in the caption that accompanied pictures from her ultrasound, which show a tiny gummy bear fetus. “

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We planned on transferring in May but I should have known, as with many parts of my life — if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

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Traditionally, expectant parents wait until the 12 week mark to announce their pregnancies, because it’s believed that the risk of miscarriage or other complications is greatly reduced by that point. But, as Spivey, and fellow celebs like Carrie Underwood, Jamie King, and Chrissy Teigen can all attest to, pregnancy losses can happen at any point, which is probably why she decided to announce early and share her joy.

“It is still very early (6 weeks and 6 days) but if you watched my @oovalife chat on Monday — this is my reality and I don’t want to have to stay silent about it because of taboos or a fear of jinxing it,” she wrote.

Spivey and Hunsberg lost their son CJ in November. The Bachelor Nation alum shared her experience through a series of Instagram Stories, documenting how a visit with her OB in the morning resulted in an afternoon call to her regular doctor, according to People. From there she went to the hospital where she received the heartbreaking update that her baby boy had died. She was given an epidural and Pitocin, a common induction technique that is used during these devastating tragedies, and left to wait to deliver the baby.

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“I am very sad and very scared but more than anything, I am just completely heartbroken. I feel like a failure,” she wrote in her stories after her induction. “I am going to try and get some sleep, and tomorrow I will get to meet my sweet CJ.”

Now, Spivey says she’s choosing to believe that CJ had a hand in making her pregnancy dreams come true. “I’m scared and I’m nervous but I’m also overjoyed,” she wrote in Wednesday’s post. “I’d be lying if I said that I’m not constantly thinking of CJ, but I have to think that he had a little part in this.”

While Spivey says her due date is December 9, fans should expect to catch a glimpse of her baby a little sooner, since her doctors advised that they will induce her at 37 weeks. “That means this lil seed baby will arrive sometime between the days that my Dad and CJ died,” her post concluded. “It’s like they knew I needed something to get me through November.”

And because the internet is the reason we can’t have nice things, Spivey is also dealing with posts like this, which she also shared in her Instagram stories alongside a request for help to report the account that had been harassing her. It’s a repost of a photo her husband took in 2013 that showed Spivey and her friends in bikinis, with a slightly off-color caption. “Ashley loves to talk about misogyny but somehow always surrounds herself with people like reality Steve,” the Bachelor fan account posted. While we don’t love Hunsberg’s comments, we really hate women being publicly taken to task over their husband’s actions. Especially one who just announced a pregnancy after experiencing a loss.

Pregnancy loss is both devastating and common. Here are a few other celebs who have been open about their losses.

Launch Gallery: Chrissy Teigen & More Celebrity Moms Who Were Honest About Miscarriage — Because It Matters

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