By Michaela Gordoni
Gold medalist Shawn Johnson East and her Husband, Andrew East, recently got into all things marriage, grief, and parenting on their podcast.
Shawn and Andrew are parents to three little ones: Drew, Jet, and Bear.
“[We went through] trying to work through what life looks like with another little person in our lives and trying to figure out the new identity shifts of going from husband and wife to mom and dad—which was such a blessing—but just trying to figure out what life looked like,” Shawn explained. “And then after Jet, it was like grieving this idea of, like, not being able to spend every waking second with just Drew and what does life look like for her now?”
“I do think there was postpartum depression with Bear, which was hard… It was just like hormonally I had a really hard time bouncing back from birth and mentally trying to, like, find myself again,” Shawn said. “That put a strain on our relationship… I think Andrew is trying to figure out how to help and try to, like, guide me back to being my normal self and taking care of three little humans.”
Andrew added that with every child they had, they had a hard time adjusting.
“It’s not adding a kid; it is changing the entire group dynamic of the family…,” he said. “Every kid for us was like a big transition.”
Related: Shawn Johnson East Prioritizes Marriage While Raising Toddlers
“You’re getting a new routine and, like, rhythm,” Shawn added.
Shawn also explained how she and Andrew grieved the loss of his dad and how she was there for Andrew.
“It was hard for me to know how to best support you and also grieve on my own and together,” Shawn told Andrew. “… I feel like my technique in that process was very similar and learned by you of how you handled me after each kid… With you, all I wanted to do was like be there for you.”
“It was like watching you day in and day out to make sure that you were okay and make sure you didn’t dip too far down into grief or depression or to where you weren’t coming back out,” she said. “It was just always trying to take these markers day in and day out of like how is he handling this?”
Shawn would try to make him laugh and gave him space to talk about his dad, and Andrew said she did a wonderful job of supporting him while he grieved.
“There were harder days that you would have where I would reach out to one of your brothers and say, I think today is a really good day to call Andrew and vice versa. I mean, you guys were doing that for each other or one of your best friends,” she told him.
Andrew appreciated that because it pushed him to communicate. He knows that as a man, he has a tendency to isolate but he and Shawn will both benefit in their marriage if he communicates with her and he learned to do that through his grief.
“That’s been something I’ve really had to work on is like, no, I need to open this up and share this and talk about it,” he said.
Shawn previously shared marriage advice from He Knows Your Name Ministry founders Steve and Linda Znachko, which she’s always kept to heart.
“They basically said whenever you have an argument, if you’re both on the same page in understanding that you’re going to be married no matter what, with every argument you know how it’s going to end,” Johnson explained. “It changes the perspective, so you don’t feel like something’s on the line.”
Shawn previously acknowledged, “Your spouse will change. They will go through phases of life where they are completely different than the person you married, but that’s also part of the adventure of life: going through these ups and downs and falling back in love with each one of those people.”
Shawn and Andrew show that families can grow when you love and support one another and don’t shy away from vulnerability.
Both Shawn and Andrew will appear on the upcoming season of Fox’s SPECIAL FORCES: WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST.
Read Next: Olympian Shawn Johnson East Thankful for Family While Visiting Ancient Olympic Stadium
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