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James Van Der Beek’s brood is growing…again!
The actor, who is currently competing on season 28 of Dancing With the Stars, revealed on Monday, October 7, that his wife Kimberly is expecting their sixth child.
The couple, who tied the knot in 2010, welcomed daughter Gwendolyn in 2018. They are also parents to daughters Olivia, 9, Emilia, 3, Annabel Leah, 5, and son Joshua, 7.
The 42-year-old took to his Instagram to share a sweet photo of his family and reveal that the pregnancy came after several miscarriages.
“Thrilled beyond belief to announce that another little bundle of joy has picked us to be their family. We chose to have our first ultrasound on camera with our #DWTS crew capturing the result – something I NEVER thought we’d ever do… but @vanderkimberly and I have been through three of those first appointments to discover either no heartbeat, or no baby, and she wanted to share this moment,” he shared.
“Miscarriage (a word that needs a replacement – nobody failed to “carry”, these things sometimes just happen) is something that people rarely talk about, and often go through in secret. But there needs to be zero shame around it, or around giving yourself the time and space to grieve. We decided to put ourselves out there – not knowing what we’d find – in an effort to chip away at any senseless stigma around this experience and to encourage people who might be going through it to open themselves up to love & support from friends and family when they need it most. Happily, for us – this time- we walked out with tears of joy. #AndThenIDancedAQuickStep. Pic by @jilliangoulding,” he added.
During the Monday episode of Dancing With the Stars, Van Der Beek’s video package before his dance with partner Emma Slater showed the actor and his wife going to the ultrasound.
“Today we are going to the doctor’s office to get an ultrasound. We have reason to believe we are pregnant again. We are so excited there’s a new little Van Der Beek in there,” Van Der Beek said.
“Hearing the heartbeat was, it’s something you never take for granted.”
He later shared the news with Slater saying, “So we have recently found out that we are pregnant.”
“We’ve had 5 kids. We’ve had 3 miscarriages in-between those,” he told her.
“To share this kind of joyous news with Emma is a real treat,” Van Der Beek said. “Miscarriage is something people really don’t talk abou and we want to recognize that it happens to people. We wanted to destigmatize that as much as we really could.”
“They’re a bunch of fun-loving kids,” Van Der Beek said in a promotional clip for DWTS. “We dance all the time in the house. We just put some music on and all of them dance.”