Rachel Hollis and her children are “riding waves of grief” in the wake of Dave Hollis’ death.
In a recent episode of The Rachel Hollis Podcast, the author briefly spoke about the “devastating” loss of her ex-husband and father to their four children.
The author and former Disney executive died Feb. 11 at age 47.
“I’m going to make this episode and then I’m not going to talk about this anymore,” she said at the start of the conversation. “His death is traumatic and awful and just, it’s just devastating.”
“We still honestly don’t know what happened,” she added. “I found out after the fact that he had gone to the hospital a couple of times because he was having heart problems. So I think it’s really highly possible he had a heart attack, but I don’t know. Whatever he died from, we’re still in the same space, which is just deep grief.”
As the episode continued, Rachel reflected on the last conversation she had with her ex-husband, to whom she was married to for 16 years before they announced their split in 2020.
“I just can’t believe he’s gone,” she said. “I had seen him the day before at our son’s baseball game.”
The author said nothing about the interaction stood out to her. “Just talked to him normal, didn’t think anything weird,” she recalled.
As for their children — sons Jackson, Sawyer and Ford, as well as daughter Noah — Rachel said they’re all “riding waves” of grief, but “doing as well as they can.”
“I have experienced a lot of grief in my life, so my way of helping them through this is, whatever you are feeling is fair and allowed and real to you and you are allowed to feel those feelings,” she said.
“We’re sad, we’re angry, we’re confused and we’re all the feelings,” she continued. “But we are very strong. We are very close. We are a very tight group. And it’s gonna take some time, but we are going to be okay.”
Rachel went on to share that the path forward will include “a lot of therapy,” tears, and figuring it out as they go. And while she will be going back to work — “I think I need a distraction,” she shared — all of her new podcast episodes would be material that was recorded before her ex-husband’s death.
“If you have the time or the intention, just keep wrapping us in prayer, especially the kids,” she added.
Following news of her ex’s death, Rachel shared a statement on Feb 14, which would have been his 48th birthday.
“We are devastated,” she wrote.
“I have no words and my heart is too broken to find them,” she added. “Please wrap the kids up in prayers as we try to navigate through the unthinkable.”
The former executive and author died at his Texas home, a family representative told at the time.
An exact cause of death has not been determined, but an autopsy has been ordered, Hays County Justice of the Peace Andrew Cable previously told .