James Van Der Beek and his wife Kimberly are mourning after losing the baby they’d been planning on welcoming to their family.
Monday night, Van Der Beek posted to Instagram that they were “Wrecked. Devastated. In shock.”
“We’ve been through this before, but never this late in the pregnancy, and never accompanied by such a scary, horrific threat to @vanderkimberly and her well-being," Van Der Beek wrote. “Grateful that she’s now recovering, but we’ve only just begun unpacking the layers of this one.”
The actor had announced they were expecting back in early October.
"Thrilled beyond belief to announce that another little bundle of joy has picked us to be their family," he wrote at the time.
The couple has been married since 2010 and have five kids: Olivia, 9; Joshua, 7; Annabel Leah, 5; Emilia, 3; and Gwendolyn, 1.
Sadly, this is not the first time the pair has experienced a miscarriage. Earlier this year, the actor opened up about their previous three miscarriages:
"First off — we need a new word for it. 'Mis-carriage,' in an insidious way, suggests fault for the mother — as if she dropped something, or failed to 'carry.' From what I’ve learned, in all but the most obvious, extreme cases, it has nothing to do with anything the mother did or didn’t do. So let’s wipe all blame off the table before we even start."
It's worth noting that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.
And Van Der Beek stressed at the time that it's a pain that "will tear you open like nothing else."
"It’s painful and it’s heartbreaking on levels deeper than you may have ever experienced," he explained. "So don’t judge your grief, or try to rationalize your way around it. Let it flow in the waves in which it comes, and allow it its rightful space. And then ... once you’re able ... try to recognize the beauty in how you put yourself back together differently than you were before."
He went on to say that amid all the suffering that comes from loss, there’s joy in the healing process.
"Some changes we make proactively, some we make because the universe has smashed us, but either way, those changes can be gifts," he wrote. "Many couples become closer than ever before. Many parents realize a deeper desire for a child than ever before. And many, many, many couples go on to have happy, healthy, beautiful babies afterwards…”
Van Der Beek had been a frontrunner on “Dancing with the Stars” this season, and during Monday night’s episode he addressed the loss.
"The little soul that we had expected to welcome in our family took a shortcut to whatever lies beyond," he explained prior to taking the dance floor. "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."
The 42-year-old hadn’t planned on dancing in the semifinals, but decided to do so for Kimberly.
He then danced the foxtrot to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” with his pro partner Emma Slater. It was a emotional performance that ended with Van Der Beek in tears, comforted by Slater.
It also proved to be the star's last dance on the show, as he was eliminated at the end of the episode.
