Pressing pause. Kimberly Van Der Beek and James Van Der Beek have put their family plans on hold following multiple miscarriages.
“I need to feel really good in my body if I’m going to explore that option,” the Washington native, 38, recently said during a “The Make Down” podcast episode. “Right now, I’m not there.”
The former business consultant said that while she and the actor, 43, have been “very blessed” with five children — Olivia, 10, Joshua, 8, Annabel, 6, Emilia, 4, and Gwendolyn, 2 — she has also suffered five miscarriages.
Two of those losses were “very harsh,” Kimberly explained, adding, “I’m in very much a healing mode right now. My body is really needing the nourishment and the care right now, and I’ve actually been more hands-off with parenting than I have in the past.”
Following her “really extreme” pregnancy losses in November 2019 and June, she is now “learning what it’s like to have a relationship with [her] body” and to put herself first.
While Kimberly is currently “being tender” with herself and not trying to conceive a sixth child, she and James are not currently using birth control.
“Listen, the possibility is there, if my body agrees to it,” the five-time mom explained. “I do not take birth control — big surprise! And, in fact, I will not take birth control. It really took me years to rebalance my system after birth control. You know, there are other ways to go about calculating dates and things to not get pregnant. We’re not great at that.”
She and the Dawson’s Creek alum and their five kids have been living in California but revealed on Wednesday, September 30, that they are relocating to Texas.
“Sometimes a fuller life begins with an empty house,” the Varsity Blues star captioned an Instagram slideshow at the time. “Leaving Los Angeles incredibly grateful for all the friends and memories we’ve made here. Onto the next big adventure!”
His wife added with a post of her own: “As we began our 10-day road trip [to Texas], we decided to adopt two new rescue pups from @wagmorpets to bring along and bond on this journey. Their names are Windsor (blue eyed gray one) and Able. Able means breath. And we need a lot of breath right now. Rocky and Skye bonded with them right away.”
