CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Emily Maynard rose to national fame as a bachelorette, known as much for her love stories as her breakups. Her personal life, every inch played out on screen for audiences to dissect, seemed anything but normal. She says, “That’s just not what’s important to me anymore. It was also one of the darkest times of my life, to be honest, so I’m just happy to have that in the past and everything be normal now.” WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty asked, “Darkest because it hadn’t worked out the way you hoped?” Maynard says, “Darkest, just meaning all the media attention that came with it. You’re always your own worst enemy, so I would watch it back and think I should have done this, done that, and having everything blow up in my face a couple times and go through a public embarrassment a couple times. It wasn’t ideal.”
Today, Maynard is the picture of ideal: happily married to Tyler Johnson, a man she met in church, not at a rose ceremony. Together, they continue to raise her 9-year-old daughter Ricki. And now, the family is waiting for the arrival of another baby in July. Two months ago, Maynard posted a picture of her gender reveal cake on Instagram, but never publicly revealed what she was having, until now. “It’s a boy,” she says. Fogarty asked, “Do you have names?” Maynard replied, “Well, we are going back and forth. I told Tyler that (if) he gets to pick the last name for everybody, then I should pick the first name and if he wanted to pick the first name, then it can take my last name and be a Maynard! He did not like that. So. We’re still compromising.”
Compromise is something Maynard says she’s still learning as a newlywed and she says it’s the most notable difference between this pregnancy and her first, with NASCAR’s Ricky Hendrick, who was killed in a plane crash in 2004. She says, “The most different thing for me will be having Tyler here to help. I raised Ricki by myself and it’s just been the two of us for so long.”
Public appearances and paparazzi used to take up a lot of Maynard’s time; now it’s PB & J sandwiches, plus all the aches and pains of pregnancy. She says with a laugh, “I’ve been really sick, since like the day we found out, I feel like. Tyler has seen me throw up in his gym bag. Pretty much everywhere. So if he still finds me attractive after all of that, I think we’re good!”
Quite a difference for the beautiful blonde whose amorous adventures captivated viewers. She says, “I’m old news and I’m thankful for that.”
Now, Maynard’s looking forward to something far less glamorous than red carpets and TV cameras: late night feedings. She says, “I’m just really excited to be present. With Ricki, when Ricki was born, it was a really hard time in my life, and I was so young that I really don’t think I enjoyed it or soaked it in as much as I wish I could have, all those sweet baby moments and all of that. So I’m just really looking forward to, like, getting up with him and feeding him. Ask me after he’s been here for a month if I’m still excited, but right now, that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
After years of searching, Maynard’s happily ever after is here, anchored not by celebrity, but by her faith, her daughter, her new husband, and the new baby she says she’s prayed for forever. Fogarty asked, “When he’s an adult, looking back on his mom, how do you hope that he describes you?” Maynard says, “That I had a kind heart. And that I loved the Lord and my family.”
Maynard says Ricki is very excited about her new baby brother. And, Maynard says she has always wanted “a lot” of kids, so there may be even more babies in her future.
