Emilie Kiser EXCLUSIVE: The Loss That Changed Her Forever
Episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty · June 17, 2026 · 1 h 7 min
Emilie Kiser tells Jay Shetty about losing her son Trigg in a pool accident, living with grief publicly, her marriage, and pool safety.
Summary
In her first in-depth interview about the death of her son Trigg, content creator Emilie Kiser spoke with Jay Shetty about the night she received a call from her husband, Brady, that Trigg had fallen into the family pool while she was out at dinner five weeks postpartum. Trigg died about a week later. Kiser described how news crews, helicopters and online sleuths turned the tragedy into a public frenzy, and said she has since stopped sharing either of her children online.
Kiser rejected the idea of grief as a set of stages with an end point, crediting grief specialist Joanne Cacciatore with teaching her that the stages model was not designed for bereaved parents. She described grief as permanent but coexisting with joy, support and guilt, and offered a two-scale framework rating grief and the ability to manage it. She discussed therapy, animal-assisted care at a grief care farm, weekly couples counseling, returning to work as a source of normalcy, and her anger at online commentary, which she said could never hurt her more than she already hurt herself.
Kiser spoke about parenting her younger son Teddy after a promise she made to Trigg, and about her initial anger toward Brady, which she said gave way to empathy when she recognized it could have happened to her. She described keeping Trigg's memory present at home and named "he's in a better place" as the most hurtful thing people said. She closed by urging parents to layer barriers against drowning, including pool fences, ISR survival swim lessons, pool sensors, door alarms and self-closing doors, arguing that no parent can watch a child 100% of the time.
Chapters
- 0:03
Introduction and daily life now
Shetty welcomes Kiser, who describes her current routine caring for her son Teddy and why she chose to speak now.
- 3:04
Life before the loss
Kiser explains starting social media in 2021 as an outlet for connection as a young mother in Utah.
- 5:45
The night Trigg fell in the pool
Kiser recounts the phone call from her husband, the hospital stay and Trigg's death a week later.
- 12:26
The story goes public
Kiser describes how news coverage and online speculation identified her family while she focused only on Trigg.
- 15:24
Online support and returning to normalcy
Kiser discusses the support from her community, her guilt at receiving it, and her boundaries on sharing.
- 18:47
Grief has no finish line
Kiser argues grief never ends and coexists with other emotions, citing Joanne Cacciatore's critique of the stages model.
- 22:09
Media intrusion and public judgment
Kiser recalls helicopters and news crews at her home and reflects on online blame and assumptions.
- 32:25
Therapy and healing practices
Kiser describes the grief care farm, grief therapists, couples counseling and her approach to good and bad moments.
- 38:16
Returning to work while grieving
Kiser explains that her content reflects only what she chooses to share, not the whole of her grief.
- 40:49
Parenting Teddy and the final promise
Kiser discusses fear in parenting and the promise to Trigg that she would care for his brother.
- 44:28
Grieving and forgiving as a couple
Kiser describes her anger at Brady, the empathy that followed, and how they grieve together.
- 51:38
Keeping Trigg's memory alive
Kiser talks about speaking of Trigg daily and names hurtful and helpful things people say to grieving parents.
- 55:13
Pool safety and prevention
Kiser urges parents to use pool fences, ISR lessons, alarms and other barriers because constant supervision is impossible.
Key points
What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says she no longer shares her younger son or images of Trigg online.
“I don't share my younger son anymore. I have a strict boundary of I don't share Trig anymore”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says there is no larger meaning to Trigg's death and that it happened because the family did not take certain precautions.
“At the end of the day, it happened because there were precautions that we didn't take”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser argues that grief has no finish line and remains with a person for life.
“It's never ending. Your grief is going to be with you for the rest of your life”
- Jay Shetty
Shetty argues that telling grieving people their pain will one day go away is harmful because it leaves them waiting for that day.
“lying to ourselves or lying to others saying it will go away one day is actually worse because then you're just waiting for that day”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser relays Joanne Cacciatore's view that the stages of grief were designed for people facing their own end of life, not for parents who lost a child.
“that's designed for elderly people who are at the end of life, of the stages of accepting that your life is going to end”
Linked moment · 22:09Skip to 22:09 using a listen link in the info box.
Emilie KiserKiser recounts that in the early days the family stayed inside because of people filming, helicopters and news crews at their home.
“we weren't even leaving our house because we had people driving by, taking videos, helicopters going over our house”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser states that drowning is the leading cause of death among young children and says it is not discussed enough.
“drowning is the leading cause of death in children three and under”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says the grief care farm's professionals were there not to heal her but to give her tools, teaching her the pain would only become more manageable.
“They're not there to heal you. Nothing's going to be able to heal you. They're there so that they can teach you the best tools”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser describes judging her days on two scales: the intensity of her grief and her ability to manage it.
“Your grief is on a scale of one to 10, and then your level of managing it is on a scale of one to 10”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser argues that social media content never represents a person's full reality because it is always curated.
“Social media shouldn't be anyone's representation of anything because at the end of the day, it's always, even if you share the good, the bad, the hard, it's what you're choosing to share”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says a final promise to Trigg that she would care for his brother Teddy has kept her going.
“I made a promise to Trigg right before we lost him that I was going to take care of Teddy”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says her anger at her husband shifted to empathy once she recognized the accident could just as easily have happened while she was in charge.
“This could have just as easily happened to me. This could have just as easily been me and Brady's position”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser advises that grieving partners should not try to balance each other's emotions but let each other feel them and be present.
“And it's not each other's job to balance it out. Your job is to let your partner feel what they need to feel”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser says telling bereaved parents their child is in a better place or that it was meant to happen is hurtful, since Trigg's death was preventable.
“anything in the realm of he's in a better place or this is just what was supposed to happen because it wasn't”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser urges parents with pools and young children to install a pool fence, saying she regrets choosing a net instead.
“please if you have a pool and you have a young child get a pool fence I know there's other options I was there I chose Annette I regret it”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser argues that because no parent can watch a child constantly, families need layered barriers that buy time if something happens.
“Make sure that you have every other barrier so that, God forbid, something happens, you're able to act”
- Emilie Kiser
Kiser recommends specific safety measures including pool sensors, door alarms and automatic closers on sliding doors.
“Make sure that you have a sensor in your pool. Make sure that you have door alarms”
People
In the conversation
- Jay ShettyBritish author, podcast host and former monk who hosts On Purpose
- Emilie KiserAmerican social media content creator and mother whose son Trigg died after a drowning accident in 2025
Discussed
- Trigg KiserEmilie Kiser's young son, who died after falling into the family pool in May 2025
- Brady KiserEmilie Kiser's husband and father of Trigg and Teddy
- Joanne CacciatoreGrief researcher and founder of a care farm for bereaved parents
Topics
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From the publisher
Emilie Kiser sits down with Jay for her first in depth conversation about the loss of her son, Trigg, and what life has looked like in the months after. Emilie speaks candidly about grief, guilt, marriage, motherhood, and the pressure of navigating tragedy while also living publicly online. Instead of trying to offer perfect answers, this episode focuses on the reality of surviving something life-altering one moment at a time. The conversation also shines a light on the importance of pool safety, prevention, and the measures that can help protect families from unimaginable loss. Emilie opens up about therapy, boundaries, support systems, and the reality that grief doesn’t disappear, it becomes something you learn to carry. It’s a deeply honest conversation about love, accountability, healing, and finding a way to keep living after life changes forever. In this episode you'll learn: How to Live Alongside Grief How to Support Someone After Loss How to Set Boundaries Online How to Grieve Together as a Couple How to Protect Your Children Better How to Heal One Day at a Time How to Show Up for Your Family in Pain Healing doesn’t mean forgetting. Strength doesn’t mean pretending you’re okay. It simply means continuing to love, continuing to show up, and continuing to hope even when life feels different than before. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty JAY’S DAILY WISDOM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Join 900,000+ readers discovering how small daily shifts create big life change with my free newsletter. Subscribe https://news.jayshetty.me/subscribe Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 02:51 Life Before Everything Changed 05:30 Losing a Beloved Son 07:21 Searching for Answers After Tragedy 09:41 The Unimaginable Pain of Losing a Child 12:35 Navigating Grief in the Public Eye 14:17 Accepting There May Never Be Answers 15:43 Facing Judgment Online 18:08 What Grief Teaches You Ab…
Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on September 29, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.