It is never easy to lose a loved one. When that person is your ex-husband and the father of your children, emotions can run high. You want to be there for your children but also have a myriad of your own emotions to wade through. Girl, Wash Your Face author Rachel Hollis finds herself in this exact situation.
On February 11, 2023, Rachel’s ex-husband, Dave Hollis, unexpectedly died at the age of 47. He left behind his and Rachel’s four children: Jackson, Sawyer, Ford, and Noah. Rachel and Dave were married from 2004 to 2020, when they legally separated.
Rachel addressed Dave’s death on her show, The Rachel Hollis Podcast, in the episode released on February 27. She told listeners that for her own mental health, she would only be talking about this the one time. She wanted to give herself time and space to grieve and be there for her kids.
“I’m going to make this episode and I’m not going to talk about this anymore. His death is traumatic and awful and just — it’s just devastating,” she began.
Dave’s death came out of nowhere for her and her children, as he was not known to them to be sick. It is still unknown what exactly he died from.
“We still honestly don’t know what happened. I found out after the fact that he had gone to the hospital a couple of times because he was having heart problems,” she said.
All Rachel can do at this point is speculate and grieve his loss. “So I think it’s really highly possible he had a heart attack but I don’t know and whatever he died from … we’re still in the same space, which is just deep grief,” she said.
Rachel described the recent weeks as “absolutely horrible. There are all sorts of stages and the kids and I go through all of those all day long over and over. We’re riding waves.”
The last time she saw Dave was the day before he died, at their son’s basketball game. She "talked to him normal, didn’t think anything weird.” She could never have predicted what was to come.
Rachel is working hard to manage her own grief and be there for her kids, but it is not easy. “How do you walk kids through this?” she pondered. “The kids are doing as well as they can but that’s, you know … My way of helping them through this is, whatever you are feeling is fair and allowed and real to you. You are allowed to feel those feelings.”
Rachel knows that her family will get through this hard time. “We’re sad, we’re angry, we’re confused, and we’re all the feelings,” she said. “But we’re very strong. We’re very close. We’re a very tight group. And it’s gonna take some time, but we are going to be OK. We’re gonna figure out what life looks like now.”
