Mommy influencer Emilie Kiser revealed she has forgiven her husband after their toddler drowned in the family’s pool while he was distracted inside their home with the couple’s newborn.
The 27-year-old TikToker opened up about her agonizing battle with grief in her first interview since her 3-year-old son, Trigg, fell into the family’s backyard pool in Chandler, Arizona, and died while her husband, Brady, was home alone with their two children in May 2025.
“When you lose your child, you really don’t care about anything else besides doing your best to get through it,” Kiser said on Wednesday’s episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast.
“And there’s not even a through it. You don’t get through it.”
The social media influencer, who boasts more than 5.2 million TikTok followers and 2 million Instagram followers, said the heartbreaking loss prompted her to show her husband more “empathy and respect,” allowing her to forgive him.
Brady told police he lost sight of Trigg after the toddler went outside following dinner, and insisted he was distracted by the couple’s 5-week-old baby. Investigators said the boy was alone outside for almost 10 minutes and in the water for about seven before he was recovered.
The youngster died on May 18, six days after being pulled from the water.
Brady, whose attention was allegedly “divided” at the time of Trigg’s drowning, was initially recommended for a felony child abuse charge by police, but a prosecutor later said he would not be charged.
“This could have just as easily happened to me,” Kiser told Shetty, noting the realization changed her “brain chemistry” as she processed her grief.
“This could have just as easily been me in Brady’s position. Brady was taking care of our newborn child. When I left for dinner that night, he was de-thawing my breast milk, trying to get Teddy settled, a 5-week-old baby. That doesn’t excuse anything. It doesn’t excuse what happened,” she continued.
“But taking that accountability, along with all the other things I know I could have changed, gave me so much true, deep, real, raw empathy for him of, this could have been me.”
Kiser recalled fearing her marriage might not survive the aftermath – but said she still would have forgiven her husband even if it hadn’t.
Instead, the couple worked with medical professionals to process their trauma, including visiting a care farm for animal therapy.
“I just have so much empathy and love for him, and he is so strong,” she said.
“I’m really proud of us, honestly, and how we’ve grieved together.”