The Tragic Loss Hallmark's Ashley Williams Was Open With Fans About

The following article includes a discussion of pregnancy loss. 

Ashley Williams' Instagram account is filled with laughter, friends, family members including sister Kimberly and a very famous brother-in-law, some home decor projects, and all kinds of crazy dancing. She also posts photos of her hanging out with fellow Hallmark stars with whom she's appeared in movies like "Notes of Autumn," "Two Tickets to Paradise," and several "Christmas in Evergreen" romps. There are also several references to Williams' husband Neal Dodson, and their two sons, Gus and Odie. 

The Hallmark star married Dodson in 2011, and three years later, their first child, Gus, was born. Odie followed soon after, in 2017. In between her eldest and youngest being born, Williams found out she was pregnant again. But before the first trimester of her pregnancy was over, the star had a miscarriage. Her Instagram didn't include the news, but the "How I Met Your Mother" star shared her tragic loss with fans by penning a very personal essay, which was published shortly after her pregnancy abruptly ended.

When Ashley Williams was eight weeks pregnant with her second child, in 2016, she stopped at a Whole Foods grocery store for a slice of pizza for her and Gus, a trip that was interrupted by a steady stream of blood down her legs — Williams was having a miscarriage. The Hallmark star soon discovered how common it was, with her midwife explaining, "This happens to one in four pregnant women your age." 

She confirmed the statistic when she talked to her friends, and found out that most of them had also experienced one if not more. In a personal essay entitled "I Need to Talk About My Miscarriage," published on Medium as part of the Human Development Project, the actor wrote extensively about her loss, and the variety of different emotions she experienced as a result. 

The actor recalled, "I gave birth to Gus on the living room floor, a planned home birth, with no medication. I am a badass woman. I am strong. My miscarriage, however, decimated my confidence." Williams also shared intimate details on "Dr. Berlin's Informed Pregnancy" podcast a year later, admitting that she blamed herself for the miscarriage, even if she knew rationally that wasn't the case. "I felt broken," the Hallmark star confessed. 

Ashley Williams is a trained doula who has attended more than 50 births to date. Still, she was surprised and frustrated about the hush-hush vibe surrounding miscarriages, which led to her wanting to be more open about her own. "When I went through that I was just so surprised by how much secrecy I found in our culture surrounding it," she told Country Living. "It didn't make sense to me, so I wanted to write about it."

In her essay on Medium, the "Something Borrowed" star encouraged others to open up about their own experiences, to challenge the stigma. "The response I got was overwhelming," Williams said. Though she didn't discuss her miscarriage on Instagram, her posts around the same time were filled with comments from fans offering their gratitude for the star's impressive honesty, while also sharing their own pregnancy loss stories. 

And while Williams wants to keep the conversation about miscarriages ongoing and out in the open, there was one other major reason she decided to tell others about her loss. "It was mostly that I just can't keep my mouth shut," she divulged. "I'm not very good at keeping secrets."