Next steps! On Tuesday, August 17, Ashley Jacobs announced that she had given birth to her and husband Mike Appel’s first child together, son Grayson.
“The happiest, most surreal, and exhausting weekend of our lives,” the Southern Charm alum, 36, captioned an Instagram slideshow. “Our baby boy is here. It’s hard to put into words how I feel because ‘in love’ feels like an understatement. God is good. #AppelPartyof3.”
Jacobs shared her pregnancy news in June with a baby bump photo, writing via Instagram: “We’ve been keeping the biggest little secret and we are absolutely over the moon share our news.”
Not only did the California native show her budding belly at the time, but she also used a wedding ring emoji to announce that they had secretly tied the knot as well.
The pair got engaged in March. “My fiancé!! (Kinda has a nice ‘ring’ to it!)” the former reality star captioned her Instagram announcement at the time.
When her then-fiancé shared photos of his own via social media, he called the former Bravo personality his “snow angel.”
After announcing that they had a little one on the way, the nurse continued to show her Instagram followers her pregnancy progress. “Lately when people congratulate me, I like to say, ‘For what?!’ And then watch them freak out a little!” the then-expectant star captioned a June bikini photo. “No more hiding this bump. #30weekspregnant.”
Jacobs previously dated Thomas Ravenel from 2017 to 2018. The politician, 58, recently welcomed a baby as well with Heather Mascoe giving birth to son Jonathan in June 2020. (The former state treasurer is also the father of daughter Kensie, 7, and son Saint, 5, with his ex Kathryn Dennis.)
Jacobs was “a bit broken” after her split from Ravenel, she exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2020, adding, “I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it and be honest with you, it just kept stacking up higher and higher to where I just felt like it’s almost impossible. You know, like, ‘I’m never going to get out of this.”
Meeting Appel “forever changed” Jacobs’ life “for the better,” she gushed via Instagram in August 2020 while celebrating her first anniversary with him.
Jacobs was “so happy” dating Appel, she told Us. “It’s weird having something so healthy. It feels too good to be true, but I think that’s how most things are, to be honest with you. … I’m not broken anymore.”