James Van Der Beek made a heartbreaking reveal on Monday night’s episode of “Dancing With the Stars”.
Ahead of his second dance of the night with partner Emma Slater, the “Dawson’s Creek” alum shared that his wife, Kimberly, had miscarried on Saturday. They were expecting their sixth child together.
“My wife, Kimberly, and I went through every expecting parent’s worst nightmare. We lost the baby,” an emotional Van Der Beek said. “The little soul that we had expected to welcome in our family took a shortcut to whatever lies beyond. You never know why these things happen. That’s what I’ve been telling my kids. All you know is that it brings you closer together.”
“It breaks you open. It opens up your heart, it deepens your appreciation. It makes you more human. I really didn’t think I would be dancing tonight, but Kimberly from her hospital bed said to me, ‘I am not done watching you dance.’ Kimberly, I love you,” he continued.
Van Der Beek explained that he’d be dancing to “Take Me To Church” by Hozier. “That song has taken on a whole new meaning for me this week,” he shared. “Kimberly, I’m dancing for you, I’m dancing for us, so here we go, babe.”
The actor, who shares five kids — Olivia, 9, Joshua, 7, Annabel, 5, Emilia, 3 and Gwendolyn, 1 — with his wife then delivered a stunning Foxtrot on the dance floor, ending his routine in tears. He received praise and admiration from the judges, and stopped to hug his crying daughter in the audience on his way up to the star lounge.
“Kimberly, I love you. Thank you,” Van Der Beek said in a tearful message to his wife. “You’re amazing, thank you.”
Kimberly opened up about the miscarriage in an Instagram post published on Tuesday.
“Thank you to everyone for all the love. I don’t even know how I’m gonna begin to respond to it all, so I think I’ll just have to do it here,” Kimberly said. “We lost our baby – boy, by the way – and I almost lost my life, which is not a story that has been told.”
“At some point, I can dig into the details with you guys about what happened in the emergency room,” she continued. “I’m not really ready to talk further about everything yet, but at some point, I will.”
The actor also discussed the situation further in an Instagram post.
A few days after Van Der Beek’s announcement, his wife shared an update on her Instagram Story.
“Thank you so much for all the love,” Kimberly said while cuddling Annabel Leah.
“I’m so grateful for it. A lot of you have asked how I’m feeling physically. I’m healing. I am definitely healing. My biggest thing is my blood pressure. I just get very lightheaded very easily so I can’t really get up and walk around for more than a couple minutes right now. A lot of blood transfusion action this weekend, so I’m just taking it super easy trying to restore and build my blood.”
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