To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Emilie Kiser has returned to social media with a 13-minute video apologising after her toddler son Teddy was seen without a life jacket while on a boat.
The influencer, 27, first addressed the incident – which came just over a year after her son Trigg drowned at their family home when he was three -via a short statement.
Now she has returned to TikTok for the first time in weeks with a lengthy video explaining exactly what happened and apologising once more to her 5.1million followers.
In footage taken from her trip to Mallorca in June with her husband Brady and fellow influencer Madi Curtis, Emilie’s son Teddy, who is 16 months old, is seen sitting with his father on the boat without a life jacket on.
The video has since been deleted, but sparked fierce backlash from fans towards Emilie, who has become an advocate for water safety since her son’s death last year.
One fan, @aquasea1117 wrote: ‘I literally cannot believe they brought that baby on a boat never mind not safely.’
Thanks for listening 🤍 Hope you all have a safe and good weekend.
While kimaodonnell added: ‘Seriously how could they possibly still be so negligent?’
After over two weeks away from social media, the lifestyle creator returned on Friday to address the entire situation in full, starting by admitting she ‘knows [she’s] made mistakes’ and that she’s ‘an imperfect human’ and that sometimes she says or does things that ‘can be confusing’.
‘Over the course of the last year our family has been no stranger to tragedy and how quickly life can change and that’s really I can say,’ she began.
Reitierating that she and her husband would ‘forever and always’ take accountability for the situation that led to their son’s death in a ‘preventable drowning’ incident.
Turning to the recent debacle involving her other son Teddy being on the boat without a life jacket, she acknowledged people’s anger and argued that her children’s safety would never be compromised for ‘aesthetic’ before explaining what happened on the boat.
‘It was simply a mistake and I’m so sorry,’ she said, before adding: ‘He was fussy and we decided to take a few moments to calm him down and we see now that that was a mistake and that was no reason ever why a child should be out of a life jacket.’
‘Even though in the moment it seemed like the right thing to do for our child, I understand that at any moment something could have happened and could have gone wrong,’ she reflected.
