The dancer gave birth to her son, Rome, in January.
Jenna Johnson is opening up about her past miscarriage. During an appearance on Good Morning America, the 28-year-old Dancing With the Stars pro and her husband, Val Chmerkovskiy, revealed for the first time that she suffered a miscarriage in 2021, less than two years before she gave birth to the couple's son, Rome.
"We were in Dallas for a show, and while we were practicing, we did something and I just turned to him and I'm like, 'I think I'm bleeding,'" she said. "And immediately, just my heart dropped. I could see it in his face, just went white. I sprinted to our hotel room, and I lost the baby in our hotel room."
In the wake of the miscarriage, Johnson felt isolated and alone, largely because she suffered in silence given that no one knew she and Chmerkovskiy had been expecting.
"I didn't want to dance for a while. I was so angry," Johnson said. "But then it kind of became my escape. I was so, so sad. I was hurting so much."
Eventually, the couple conceived again and announced they were expecting in July 2022.
"He was my biggest support system while I was pregnant," Johnson said of her husband. "So tender and sweet."
Johnson and Chmerkovskiy welcomed their son, Rome, in January 2023.
"Those exhausting, tired moments when you're up at 4 a.m. together and you're like, 'Oh my gosh, that's my teammate and he's willing to do this with me,'" Johnson said of Chmerkovskiy, before adding of her son, "Even the hardest, most ruthless nights, the exhaustion, he's so worth it."
Chmerkovskiy is loving life as a dad too, telling GMA, "You have this playbook and the reality's that no one's paying attention to that. It takes on its own life, its own path."
Seeing his wife as a mom, Chmerkovskiy added, has only made him love her more.
"The rush of love, I think, definitely flooded me more in regards to my wife," he said. "I've never loved her more. I've never appreciated her more."
While the couple hadn't before disclosed their miscarriage, they had been open about their fertility struggles. After announcing her baby on the way, Johnson shared a second post about her long journey to pregnancy.
"We had actually stopped trying to conceive for about 6 months to mentally/emotionally give ourselves a break… so the shock, disbelief, and sheer joy in this moment is a memory I will never forget," she wrote of finding out she was expecting. "I want to keep this moment very positive because there is so much to celebrate and my heart is overflowing with gratitude, BUT our journey getting to this point wasn’t an easy one."
"I remember watching people share these videos and aching because I wished so badly I could experience that joy," she continued. "After two years of infertility, and hundreds of negative tests after negative tests, it was heart-wrenching at times to stay optimistic and made me question whether I would ever have this opportunity... If any of you out there are struggling to get pregnant, suffering from infertility, or mourning a pregnancy loss… don't lose HOPE."
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