Shay Martin, the widow of late influencer Tanner Martin, has detailed whether she wants to have more children following his death.
“[Doctors] gave him two to five years to live in 2023, and we were like, ‘OK, what do we want to do with these two to five years?’” Shay said during the Wednesday, October 1, episode of the “Unplanned” podcast. “Tanner just wanted so badly to be a dad. He had such a good relationship with his dad growing up, and even as adults, they’re these really nerdy best friends. He really, really wanted to be a dad, and I had always wanted to have a family.”
Shay married Tanner two years before his death at age 30 following a battle with colon cancer in June. After their wedding, Shay underwent an egg retrieval in 2023 and subsequently stored 12 frozen embryos.
“We wanted to do a transfer … so our child would have as much time with Tanner as possible,” she explained. “Then, Tanner was too sick. It’s, like, I didn’t want to have a newborn and have my husband on hospice.”
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Shay and Tanner put their parenthood dreams on hold while he battled sepsis. As his condition improved in 2024, they revisited the IVF process. Shay used one of the embryos in a transfer and got pregnant with daughter Amy Lou, who was born months before Tanner’s death.
Amid Shay’s fertility journey and Tanner’s cancer battle, the couple discussed whether they would have more kids down the line.
“We’ve had that conversation numerous times, and it’s pretty much always been the same,” Shay told podcast hosts Abby and Matt Howard. “He just said, ‘If you feel like you want to use the embryos later in life, I’m OK with that. And if you feel like you don’t want to, I’m OK with that too.’”
She continued, “I don’t know what the future will hold for me. For now, I pay for [the embryos] every month just to keep them [in storage] and keep them alive. It’s $85 a month.”
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Until then, Shay is focused on her daughter.
“I knew that I have a lot of love to give Amy Lou. Tanner’s family, my family and Tanner — even if he’s not on this earth — we all have a lot of love to give her,” Shay stated. “I know she’s going to be OK.”
Shay also plans to keep her late husband’s memory alive for Amy Lou’s benefit.
“One of the things that we were blessed to do was have Tanner make videos and buy gifts for her,” she explained. “We have this charm bracelet, and we have, I think, 21 charms. So, every year I have a charm that he chose to give to her. We have that, [and] we have videos of him reading stories. We have videos from him in general, [like one of] him singing, ‘Happy birthday’ for her to listen to every year.”
According to Shay, she also doesn’t “ever plan to stop talking about” Tanner.
“Even if I remarry someday, I’m gonna still talk about him,” she said. “Tanner [was like], ‘I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life. I want you to find someone to love and [who] will love you in this life.’ He was really sweet and thoughtful, like, ‘I want you to remarry. I don’t want you to be alone.’”
