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James Van Der Beek shares pregnant wife Kimberly suffered a miscarriage at 17 weeks

James Van Der Beek shared some personal family news about wife Kimberly's pregnancy. (Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)
James Van Der Beek shared some personal family news about wife Kimberly's pregnancy. (Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)

Dancing with the Stars alum James Van Der Beek revealed devastating news on Saturday: His wife Kimberly experienced a miscarriage at 17 weeks pregnant.

“After suffering a brutal, very public miscarriage last November, we were overjoyed to learn we were pregnant,” James wrote on Instagram. “This time, we kept the news to ourselves. But last weekend, once again, 17 weeks in... the soul we’d been excited to welcome into the world had lessons for our family that did not include joining us in a living physical body.”

Kimberly was rushed to the hospital for blood transfusions, he wrote. “And as I stood by, grateful for the good people who navigated the maze of regulations to save her life — but helpless to do much for the woman I loved other than massage her feet and try to keep her warm (with my #DWTS robe, ironically) — something kept running through my head, again and again, which I now feel compelled to share. We’ve got to take better care of each other...”

In an additional comment, James added, “After dealing with this privately for a week, reading through your comments has opened a big, cathartic door to healing I didn’t even know was closed. I once again encourage anybody who has gone through this to open up to loved ones about it. And thank you for all the love and good energy.”

James and Kimberly have been married for 10 years and share five children, ages 9, 8, 6, 4 and 2. According to multiple reports, this is the couple’s fifth miscarriage.

Related: James Van Der Beek Opens Up a Month After Wife’s Miscarriage (2019)

In November, the Dawson’s Creek star shared that Kimberly, who was due in April, had miscarried, leaving their family “wrecked,” “devastated” and “in shock.” He wrote at the time, “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. Grateful that she’s now recovering, but we’ve only just begun unpacking the layers of this one.”

James was then performing on the hit dance show and dedicated his performance to his wife. “I really didn't think I would be dancing tonight,” he reportedly said on television. “But Kimberly from our hospital bed said to me, I am not done watching you dance..."

One year before, the 43-year-old shared how pregnancy loss can stigmatize women. “....First off — we need a new word for it,” he posted on Instagram. “‘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.”

James added, “Second... it will tear you open like nothing else. It’s painful and it’s heartbreaking on levels deeper than you may have ever experienced. 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...”

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