'Bringing Up Bates' Star Lawson Bates 'Very Grateful' Following Serious Car Crash
Bringing Up Bates star Lawson Bates was involved in a car accident earlier in the week, totaling his vehicle but luckily sparing Bates and the other driver involved. The former reality star addressed the shocking incident in a statement, revealing just how close to disaster he could've been.
"At 5:30 PM on Thursday, April 21, I was in Knoxville,TN driving to pick up my fiancé, Tiffany, from her wedding hair and makeup trial. Out of the blue a car turning left onto the main highway slammed into my passenger side," Bates says in the statement. "I am so grateful I had not picked her up yet, as that would've been her seat. Life can change so fast, and I was quickly reminded of that. Although the car is completely totaled, I feeling very grateful to be ok, and relieved the other driver was alright as well. Definitely grateful for God's protection today!"
The 29-year-old country music hopeful is engaged to Tiffany Espensen, sealing the deal back in 2021 during a trip to Italy. The couple had been dating several months before the question was popped. Bates surprised his future bride with the trip, telling her it was to shoot a music video for their country music collaboration titled "Crazy Love." The reality was far sweeter.
"I knew something was suspicious when Lawson became awfully secretive with texts and planning with others. However, he still blew me away with this surprise!" Espensen said at the time. "To travel to Italy for any occasion is a dream, but especially for an engagement."
The happy news was undoubtedly nice to hold onto, considering Bringing Up Bates would be canceled only a few months later. UPtv decided to pull the plug on the reality series after ten seasons, canceling it only weeks before its season 11 premiere.
"We will not be premiering Bringing Up Bates season 11 on UPtv as planned as we will be focusing our programming in 2022 on movies and a new scripted series to be announced soon," UPtv's statement read. "When we premiered Bringing Up Bates, the series was focused on parents with 19 kids who were teenagers and young children. The cameras were there to capture the love, laughs, and big life moments, as the family continued to grow. Thank you to Gil and Kelly Jo Bates for welcoming viewers into your family's home over the past ten seasons."
The Bates family are also highly connected to the Duggar clan, with the cancellation mirroring the TLC family's own turmoil to some extent with Counting On's cancellation. Of course, the reasons behind the cancellations couldn't be more different.