Warning: This article contains themes which some readers may find distressing.
Emilie Kiser has spoken about the devastating phone call that changed her life after her three-year-old son drowned in the family’s backyard pool, revealing there was a period when she struggled to forgive her husband for leaving their child unsupervised.
In her first in-depth interview since the tragedy, the Arizona-based influencer reflected on the loss of her son, Trigg, and how she has been navigating grief, guilt and her marriage in the months since his death.
Trigg died on May 18, 2025, after being found in the family’s backyard pool in Chandler, Arizona, following an incident on May 12. The loss prompted widespread discussion about water safety and the dangers of pool access for young children.
At the time, her husband Brady was at home caring for both Trigg and the couple’s newborn baby when the incident happened.
According to home surveillance footage, Trigg was unsupervised in the yard for over nine minutes and was able to enter the backyard pool, which did not have a cover in place.
He remained in the water for about seven minutes before he was discovered unresponsive.
Now, the 27-year-old has shared more about the traumatic call she received that night.
Speaking on the Jay Shetty Podcast, Kiser remembered the moment she learned something was terribly wrong.
She said: “I was five weeks postpartum, and I went out to dinner for a little girls’ night out, and about maybe 10 minutes after I arrived, I got a phone call from my husband that our son Trigg had fallen in the pool and that he wasn’t breathing.”
She added: “I could hear the pain and just confusion in his voice. I knew immediately, before he even said anything, that something was wrong.”
Kiser explained that Trigg was taken to hospital, but despite repeated efforts to save him, he died around a week later.
The interview, released on June 17, 2026, also marked the first time Kiser had spoken publicly at length about the aftermath of Trigg’s death.
During the conversation, she reflected on the emotional fallout in the months that followed, including a period when she felt overwhelming anger toward her husband and could not imagine forgiving him.
She said that eventually her perspective shifted as she considered how easily the situation could have been reversed.
The mom said: “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.”
She added: “That doesn’t excuse anything. It doesn’t excuse what happened.
“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… I would so deeply want him to forgive me and to know that I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
In the months after Trigg’s death, Kiser has also spoken about learning to live with grief, saying she does not believe loss simply goes away. She has previously encouraged parents to take water safety seriously, including fencing pools, adding barriers and keeping children under constant supervision near water.
Child drowning remains a major public health concern in the United States, and it is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.