When tragedy strikes your family, does everyone really grieve the same way—or are we all just pretending to be on the same emotional page? Well, country music heartthrob Granger Smith and his fabulous wife Amber are here to spill the tea on exactly how messy and complicated family grief actually gets.
The couple recently appeared on the “Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew” podcast to discuss the heartbreaking loss of their precious 3-year-old son River, who tragically drowned back in 2019. And honey, they’re not sugarcoating anything. According to Amber, each member of their blended brood processed their devastation in completely different ways. Because apparently, grief doesn’t come with an instruction manual—shocking, we know.
The 46-year-old “Backroad Songs” crooner and his stunning wife revealed that watching their other children navigate such an unimaginable loss was incredibly challenging. Some kids shut down, some act out, and some probably just went about their day like nothing happened—because that’s what kids do, right? The Smiths didn’t hold back in describing the raw, unglamorous reality of losing a child and trying to keep it together while managing everyone else’s emotions too.
What really gets us is how honest they’re being about the fact that there’s no “right way” to grieve. Amber emphasized that their family’s experience proved that healing doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all timeline. Translation: they were a hot mess for a while, and that was totally okay. Revolutionary concept, we know.
Granger and Amber have been absolutely admirable in how they’ve chosen to honor River’s memory over the years. Rather than hide behind their celebrity status and pretend everything’s fine, they’re out here doing the actual work of grief—therapy, talking about it publicly, and supporting each other through the messiness. Our hearts are genuinely in pieces for them.
The couple’s vulnerability is giving us all the feels, and fans are absolutely rallying around them. Social media has been flooded with supportive comments from people who’ve experienced similar tragedies, praising the Smiths for their candidness about such a devastating subject.
What do you think? A) Celebrities should always be open about their grief publicly to help others heal, or B) Some family tragedies should remain private to protect the family’s healing process?