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Granger Smith and his wife, Amber Smith, opened up about the agreement they made with one another to keep their marriage intact after the tragic loss of their 3-year-old son in 2019. The country artist, who recently announced that he will end his work in music to focus on ministry instead, spoke with the Today show about the aftermath of their son’s accidental drowning.
Smith reflected on the moment that he and his wife were told “sympathetically, of course,” that their son, River, would not survive after accidentally drowning in the pool at the family’s Texas home. Smith told Today that he and Amber “just looked at each other and we knew the statistics — we knew that couples don't make it. The odds are against us. The world is completely against us, and people are mean and they will perpetuate this. …So we made an agreement, right then — it was like, almost, a business agreement. It was like: 'OK, we're going to do this. The world is going to come at us; we're going to feel terrible; we have huge obstacles, but we are not going to split. We have to make this agreement for the other two kids — for, at least, the other two.”
Amber added in the Today interview that she “never felt” she should blame her husband after losing River. She said: “This wasn't something that he did or something that I didn't do — we're a couple. How could I ever put blame on him? …He's my husband and I love him so much. We're both walking through the exact same grief.” Read the full story from Today here.
Smith, who hosts After MidNite, recently released his highly-anticipated book, Like A River, telling his story of grief, faith and more. He deemed it the “most important piece of media that I could ever release.”