Michelle Branch Announces Pregnancy One Year After Tragic Miscarriage

Singer Michelle Branch announced she and her husband, The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, are expecting their second child together. The happy news comes less than a year after Branch announced she suffered a miscarriage in 2020. Branch and Carney married in April 2019 and are parents to Rhys James Carney, 3. Branch is also mom to daughter Owen, 16, whom she shares with ex-husband Tony Landau.

“You know you’re pregnant when… Woke up to a picture my friend Sonya sent of scones she was eating in England and I immediately had to hop out of bed and make a batch myself,” Branch wrote on Instagram Sunday. “[Carney] was my hero (as usual) and went to the market in search of double cream. Couldn’t be more excited (and nervous! Hello, pregnancy after miscarriage anyone?!) to announce baby Carney is coming early 2022!”

The “Are You Happy Now?” singer’s friends and fans celebrated the news. “AaaaaaHHH SO HAPPY for you&your beautiful growing family,” Juliette Lews wrote. “All the ‘buns are in the oven,’” Jennifer Nettles joked. “Eek!! So excited for you! Sending so much love and can’t wait to meet baby Carney,” singer-songwriter Edei wrote.

In late December 2020, Branch, 38, announced she suffered a miscarriage. The message was contrasted by several photos from the holiday season. “Just when we were rounding third and heading home (A baseball metaphor?! I know.) 2020 was like, ‘nah, I ain’t done yet,’” she began. “December decided to really finish us off with a bang! No, literally. A bomb went off in downtown Nashville yesterday. And to further twist a dagger in my heart, I experienced my first miscarriage (ugh! Motherf—er!).” The “bomb” Branch referred to was the Christmas Day bombing in Downtown Nashville, near an AT&T network hub.

Branch is a Grammy-winner thanks to her 2002 collaboration with Santana, “The Game of Love.” Last week, she celebrated the 20th anniversary of her first album, The Spirit Room, by recording a new version of the song “You Get Me.” She is also planning a live-stream anniversary concert on Sept. 11 and will release a complete re-recording of the album. Although the album was written and recorded when she was a teenager, Branch told The Independent it is still part of her identity.

“It’s a really big part of my identity,” she said last week. “And I still very much feel like a teenager. Like sometimes I have to be reminded that I’m 38 years old. But I do feel like I haven’t changed much from the person on that album. I’m still the hopeless romantic teenager writing song lyrics in her bedroom.”