Influencer Emilie Kiser has apologized after her 16-month-old son, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Kiser, was filmed on a boat without a life jacket.
The incident occurred in June during a family holiday in Spain, where Kiser and her husband, Brady, were with fellow influencer Madi Curtis and her family. A video clip shared by Curtis, and later deleted, showed Teddy alongside his father without the safety gear. Curtis's daughter was also seen without a life jacket in the footage, while her son was wearing one.
Spain's maritime law requires all children under 13 to wear life jackets on the deck of any moving recreational boat.
The video sparked criticism on social media, particularly given the couple's previous tragedy. Their elder son, Trigg, died at the age of three in 2025 after drowning in the family's backyard swimming pool in Arizona. According to a police report, Trigg had been left unsupervised for over nine minutes before he was pulled from the water.
Kiser, who is currently pregnant with the couple's third child, acknowledged in a public apology posted to her TikTok account that her child should have been wearing a life jacket for the entire boat ride.
"We are painfully aware that in a matter of seconds, your entire life can change, and we should have done better," Kiser stated. She thanked followers for their "genuine care" and acknowledged the "deep level of anger and hurt" directed at the family.
"It comes from the belief that Trigg should still be here, and we share that same belief more than can be expressed," she continued. "He was only three years old, and should have lived a lifetime more. That reality lives with us every moment of every single day."
Kiser concluded her message by stating the family would continue to "do better, advocate for better and as hard as we try to avoid them, still make mistakes." She added, "We can only promise that we will never stop learning from them and continue loving our children with everything we have."
Many supporters offered words of comfort and encouragement in the comment sections of Kiser's social media posts, with some defending her as a human who makes mistakes.
In June, Kiser spoke about coping with her son's death in an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty. She said at the time, "I always try to remind myself that I have a choice to make. I can either let this completely derail me more than it already has, and not really feel like I’m fit or able to take care of my younger son, or I can do everything in my power to be the best mom I possibly can for him, and give him the same love that Trigg had and has."