‘Bachelorette’ Alum Emily Maynard Breaks Silence on Becoming a Grandmother at 39

Emily Maynard has broken her silence after her 20-year-old daughter, Ricki Hendrick, announced her pregnancy.

The former Bachelorette, 39, joked that she was “very against” the situation on Hendrick’s Instagram Story on Thursday, responding to a follower who asked the mom-to-be what her family thought about her having a “baby outside marriage.

Maynard, who welcomed her own daughter when she was 19, sarcastically responded that she was “very against it,” quipping, “I cannot believe anybody would ever do that. Unforgivable.”

Hendrick kept that energy as she showed off all of the baby items her mom had purchased ahead of her first grandchild’s arrival. “My mom is truthfully so devastated, she’s so upset,” she deadpanned while showing off the baby books and bassinet at Maynard’s house.

Hendrick continued, “She’s not excited at all for me to have a baby. She’s pissed, actually. She’s super angry. She can’t even look at me. She doesn’t support it at all. She is pissed.”

Hendrick spoke more sincerely in a written caption on her video, writing, “These are all things she got on her own and she is not done. This is all stuff at her house too, not even my own.”

Hendrick announced on Aug. 26 that she was expecting her first child, sharing an ultrasound on her Instagram Story with a quote from Love Island USA‘s Huda Mustafa: “Netflix told me I’m not allowed to talk about it.”

She later shared a video of her baby moving around, joking, “My heart is so full, yet my stomach is so empty because she hates all food. I’m convinced.”

Maynard was also a young mom, giving birth to Ricki, full name Josephine Riddick Hendrick, when she was just 19. Maynard’s journey to motherhood was colored by tragedy, however, as her fiancé, Ricky Hendrick, died in an airplane crash in 2004, just before she learned she was pregnant with his child.

In October 2024, Maynard reflected on the 20-year anniversary of her late love. “20 years. How did this even happen? It’s so strange to have a specific marker in time that completely changed my life and soul forever,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

“I look at pictures and don’t even recognize that girl anymore, no matter how much I wish I could,” she continued. “In one hand I feel like I’ve changed so much and then in the other, that I’ve been paralyzed at age 18 forever.”

“I have so many things I can’t wait to tell him. I can’t wait for him to meet my Tyler,” she said, referencing her husband, Tyler Johnson, whom she married in 2014. “I know they’ll love each other and that Ricky is so grateful for how well he has taken care of his girls. Thank you, God, for letting me be a part of his life and for allowing me the gift of being loved by him.”