James Van Der Beek's Wife Kimberly Says She 'Almost Lost' Her Life During Miscarriage

The mom-of-five also opened up about her husband's 'DWTS' elimination.

Kimberly Van Der Beek is mourning her loss.

In a series of videos posted to her Instagram Story, James Van Der Beek's 37-year-old wife revealed that she nearly lost her life during her recent miscarriage. Kimberly and James -- who share five children, Olivia, 9, Joshua, 7, Annabel, 5, Emilia, 3 and Gwendolyn, 1 -- first shared the miscarriage news during Monday's episode of Dancing With the Stars, on which James was a contestant.

"Thank you to everyone for all the love. I don't even know how I'm gonna begin to respond to it all, so I think I'll just have to do it here," Kimberly said. "We lost our baby -- boy, by the way -- and I almost lost my life, which is not a story that has been told. But at some point, I can dig into the details with you guys about what happened in the emergency room." 

"I'm not really ready to talk further about everything yet, but at some point, I will," Kimberly added.

James alluded to his wife's life-threatening experience on Instagram Monday night, writing that they were "wrecked, devastated [and] in shock" after the miscarriage.

"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," he wrote in part. "Grateful that she’s now recovering, but we’ve only just begun unpacking the layers of this one."

The Dawson's Creek alum first opened up about the tragic news on Monday's episode of Dancing With the Stars ahead of his Foxtrot performance with his partner, Emma Slater

"I really didn't think I would be dancing tonight, but Kimberly from her hospital bed said to me, 'I am not done watching you dance.' Kimberly, I love you," he said. "Kimberly, I'm dancing for you, I'm dancing for us, so here we go, babe."

The couple's tragic experience was made even worse when James was eliminated from DWTS, which, Kimberly said, left her "pretty shocked."

When ET's Lauren Zima spoke to Emma following the elimination, she predicted that the Van Der Beek family would take the news of James' elimination the hardest.

"I think that it was really a family affair for the Van Der Beeks, his wife Kimberly, the whole family would come every single week and support," Emma said. "I know that his family's gonna take it hard and he's gonna be the strong one for them."

Also in the bottom two on Monday's episode was Ally Brooke, who offered to quit the competition and let James keep his spot. Though the gesture wasn't allowed, Kimberly appreciated Ally's offer.

"It is worth noting that Ally is a beautiful dancer and we love her like family," Kimberly said. "And she tried to give her spot to James. She tried quitting the show, the little angel." 

Emma also praised Ally for her "sweet" offer, adding that James "would never allow" the 26-year-old singer to give up her spot.

"It didn't surprise me at all 'cause she's got a heart of gold, but she does... deserve to be there," Emma told ET. "The votes are the votes and that's what happened and the scores are the scores. So you can't change that and it is what it is. So we wouldn't, we would never take someone's spot that deserves to be at the finals like Ally does."

Following the show, Ally told ET why she made the decision to offer James, 42, her spot.

"I'm really sad and I just feel like it's not right that he went home and that is how I feel," she said. "Obviously I know Sasha and I have been through hell and back on the show. We've overcome so many obstacles and we're strong people, we adore the show more than anything. I have had the time of my life on this show. But it's really tough, especially given James' circumstances that he went tonight."

"I don't believe it's fair that he was sent home, so I just wanted to give my spot to him," Ally continued. "He's been through so much and he's overcome so many things. Especially this past week, I just felt it was right to give it to him. Obviously he didn't accept it. I talked to him and he was proud of me. He told me, 'Don't be afraid to shine.' So I'm going to take that with me and I just have to do this for him, is what I feel."

As for Emma's response to her and James' elimination, she said she was "very disappointed" that they wouldn't continue on, but more focused on James' family during their tough time.

"I just didn't think that he deserved that," she told ET. "But really with everything that's happened, his personal tragedy, it puts things into perspective and it's a dance show. It's an entertainment show... It absolutely really upsets me that we can't be in the finale. However, the bigger thing in life is that it's all about family. It's all about human connection. It's all about things that are so much bigger than the show."

"I just hope that, that this, the elimination, especially at this time and this week, hasn't hurt him too much," she added. "I just really wanted to protect him and I felt like he just wasn't protected today. And I really, that makes me sad."

 

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