Dancing With the Stars pro Daniella Karagach is sharing the story of her miscarriage ahead of the birth of her first child. The 31-year-old dancer, who is married to fellow DWTS pro Pasha Pashkov, opened up about the “gut-wrenching” pregnancy loss to Good Morning America on Wednesday, Oct. 2, as part of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.
Karagach shared that she and Pashkov, 38, learned in July 2022 that they were expecting a baby, but five weeks into her pregnancy, she woke up in pain. Later, she learned she had suffered a miscarriage. “I just remember one day I was pregnant, and then the next day I wasn’t,” Karagach recalled. “And I just remember like, falling to the floor [and was] like, ‘I can’t believe this happened to me.’”
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“If it was one day or a week, or five months, or three months, or one month, or whatever the timeline was, like, it was still a loss for me, and it was a huge loss,” Karagach continued. “It was a baby, you know. So it was something we’ve wanted and pictured ourselves [with].”
In the days after her miscarriage, Karagach was in her “lowest of lows,” but Pashkov was her “saving grace” in those dark times. “Pasha really got me out of that, like state, and he was obviously grieving with me, and it wasn’t easy to talk about at the moment, but he got me out of a really bad place,” she told GMA. “And we just truly believe that we need to trust and if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen at the right time.”
Karagach hopes that by telling her story, she could help others going through a similar experience: “I’m sharing my story, just as, you know, somebody else shared their story to me, and that got me out of such a dark place. I only hope I can help someone try and get out of theirs.”
“If you don’t seek help, or if you don’t share it with someone, I feel like me personally, it could have really taken me down … because the first thing I wanted to do was blame myself,” she continued. “I always find comfort in sharing with them, because even though they can’t help you go through that situation, they can always uplift you.”
Following the miscarriage, Karagach and Pashkov would go on to welcome daughter Nikita on May 30, 2023. In June, the ballroom dancer shared sweet moments from her family’s life in honor of Father’s Day. “We love you Papa,” Karagach wrote. “Thank you for being the best dad every second of everyday. We are so lucky. Happy Father’s Day.”