The Arizona-based influencer appeared on Jay Shetty's 'On Purpose' podcast on June 17, over one year after the tragic accident
NEED TO KNOW
- Emilie Kiser opened up about the death of her son Trigg, 3, on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, marking her first interview since the toddler’s fatal drowning incident last May
- The Arizona-based influencer has consistently opened up about her grief journey in various TikTok posts shared with her millions of followers
- Emilie was not home at the time of the accident; her husband, Brady Kiser, was watching their younger son Teddy, now 1, when Trigg fell
Emilie Kiser is opening up about the death of her 3-year-old son, Trigg, in her first interview since his drowning incident last May.
The content creator, 27, appeared on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast on Tuesday, June 17. The sit-down marks her first interview since Trigg's death, but she has consistently opened up about her grief journey in various TikTok posts shared with her millions of followers.
PEOPLE can exclusively share a first look at the episode, during which Emilie discusses the process of grieving after the loss of a child while also parenting her younger son, Teddy, now 1.
Trigg was hospitalized after falling into their backyard pool on May 12, 2025. Emilie was not home at the time of the accident. Her husband, Brady Kiser, 29, was watching Teddy when Trigg fell. He died in the hospital six days later, on May 18.
Credit: Emilie Kiser/Instagram
Brady initially reported that he had lost sight of his son for three to five minutes before finding him in their pool, but the Chandler Police Department (CPD) later said their video evidence showed that Trigg "was in the backyard unsupervised for more than nine minutes, and in the water for about seven of those minutes."
Months later, CPD announced that their investigation into Trigg's death was complete and that they were recommending that Brady be tried for a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse. On July 25, 2025, however, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said that Brady would not face charges, writing in a statement that there is "no likelihood of conviction" against the father.
In Emilie's declaration to the court, which was later made public in August, the influencer said that she and her husband were “deeply concerned about the release of specific information and our ability to even start to heal.”
"Our love for our children has been shared and expressed worldwide, given my role as a social media personality with many 'followers' across a number of social media platforms," Emilie, who has a following of 4.1 million people on TikTok and 1.7 million on Instagram, told the court. "Nothing we have shared as part of my profession has depicted or been intended to depict anything but deep and adoring love within our family. That is how it should stay forever in my mind and the minds of all others."
Nearly one year later, Emilie addressed her relationship with her husband in the comments of a vlog she shared to TikTok on April 7, responding to a question about how she “healed” following Trigg's death and “forgave” Brady.
“You don't heal from the loss, you learn to live with the grief,” she responded. “Lots of therapy and consistently. As well as realization that everyone deserves love, empathy, and forgiveness. And not giving a crap about other peoples opinions, which therapy helps with.”
Credit: Emilie Kiser/Instagram
Shortly before the one-year anniversary of the tragedy this May, Emilie announced that she was taking a "much-needed" break from social media, as she described it in a video posted on May 9. Weeks later, the content creator posted on her Instagram Stories to share how she spent the time away from her digital platform.
"Hi guys. I have missed you and missed posting on here. With that being said, l am so grateful for the time I took off of posting and the way that allowed me to be with my family, and feel all the emotions and waves of grief in the hardest month of our lives," the mom of two wrote on Monday, June 1.
In the lead-up to May 2026, Emilie shared several videos reflecting on her grief and recalling the tragedy, which she described as "very preventable" in a TikTok posted on April 30 in honor of Water Safety Awareness Month.
"This is a topic that I will continue to talk about when I feel comfortable, because it is so extremely hard to talk about, and I hope that people can understand that," she said. "Our son's death was very preventable. It was an accident, but it was a preventable accident. I will always take full accountability for that, because as a parent, it is your job to protect your child."
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She continued to cite statistics about the frequency of such fatalities. "Drowning is the number one cause of death in children 3 and under," said Emilie. "And that is an extremely hard statistic to swallow because I truly just can't believe how much it happens."
The influencer emphasized her hope that her message would reach parents and hopefully prevent more tragedies from occurring. She urged parents to take "more preventive measures to protect their children."
"I really hope that if you see this video, you please, please, please install a pool fence. Make sure you have door alarms. Make sure if you have door alarms, all of your batteries are updated. Please make sure that you watch your children around water," Emilie said.
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