Former “Bachelorette” star Emily Maynard is celebrating a major life milestone.
The 39-year-old reality star is now a grandmother, after her daughter, Josephine “Ricki” Hendrick, announced on Friday she had given birth to her first child.
Hendrick shared the announcement on her Instagram, which featured a black-and-white photo of her looking at her baby after undergoing a C-section, and another of Maynard and her husband, Tyler Johnson, holding the baby in the hospital.
“Best day ever.” she captioned the post.
Hendrick announced her pregnancy in August, sharing a video of an ultrasound on her Instagram stories. She then changed her Instagram bio to read, “The first ever 20 year old to get pregnant,” which now reads, “romis mom.”
Maynard first won the hearts of Bachelor Nation when she appeared on season 15 of “The Bachelor,” competing for Brad Womack’s heart, finishing the season as the runner-up. She was then chosen as the lead for season eight of “The Bachelorette” in 2012, ending the season engaged to Jef Holm, though their engagement ended soon after.
“I always say I should not give anyone any ‘Bachelor’ and ‘Bachelorette’ tips because it has kind of been a train wreck, to be quite honest — my time on the show was a bit of a mess,” Maynard told “Good Morning America” in January 2017.
She later added that the advice she would give to those on the show is to “just have fun” with it.
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When Maynard was 18, her fiancé, NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick, died in a plane crash. She later found out she was pregnant with his child.
“The first couple of years were so hard,” Maynard told People in December 2020 about life as a single mom following her fiancé’s death. “I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I was lost. I went to therapists, but I knew nothing they would tell me was going to make me feel better. Mine was an issue of the heart that I needed to work out myself. And I knew that time would do that.”
Maynard ended up finding love with Johnson after they met at church and started dating in January 2013, following her breakup with Holm.
The two of them got engaged a year later in January 2014 and tied the knot later that year in June. Since getting married, the two welcomed five children together: Jennings, 10, Gibson, 9, Gatlin, 8, Magnolia, 5, and Jones, 2.
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“Tyler is my very best friend,” she told People. “When he proposed, I was sobbing!”
