What to Know
The internet mourned with Shay Martin when she lost her husband, Tanner Martin, at the age of 30 last June. Through his battle with colon cancer, Shay documented Tanner’s journey on social media, and today, her TikTok account has more than 720,000 followers.
After marking the one-year anniversary of his death, Shay has returned to social media with another update: She has remarried after moving back to her home state of Arizona. And boy, do people have a lot of opinions about it.
Shay announced the news in an Instagram Reel on August 2.
The video showed updates on her life with the daughter she shared with Tanner, AmyLou, who was born just before he died, and that includes a pretty big moment: not only has Shay found love again, but she’s also married.
She didn’t share the name of her new husband or any details about their relationship, other than a few clips of them together in her new video. At the same time, she’s making one thing very clear, knowing how much people truly loved Tanner: She’s not moving on, she’s moving “forward.”
“He has never asked me to leave Tanner behind, never. He honors my memory with Tanner, he honors Tanner,” she says in the video. “He celebrates the love that I had and have for Tanner, and he loves AmyLou the way Tanner would want AmyLou to be loved.”
People are a bit baffled by how quickly things moved in her new relationship.
Since it’s only been a little over a year since Tanner’s death, a lot of people are totally blown away by the fact that Shay is already married again, as many of them shared in a post on Reddit.
“She buried her husband, raised a newborn, got 1 million from fans, moved states, plastic surgery and got re-married within a year. When did she have the time?” one person asked.
Another commenter wrote, “I lost my partner suddenly and unexpectedly last year and I can’t imagine being married in a year. Starting a new relationship, no judgment at all. I’m at just over 10 months and feeling like I can date again though I haven’t started.”
Others pointed out that since Shay is part of the Mormon church, it might be more common to remarry quickly after losing a spouse in her community, with one person writing, “This is extremely normal with LDS folks.”
A lot of people are also coming to Shay’s defense.
“I know some people might have mixed feelings or questions about moving on after loss, so I wanted to share that anticipatory grief is very real,” one of Shay’s Instagram commenters wrote on her post. “When your partner has cancer especially on hospice you’ve already had the heartbreaking conversations, grieved the future you’re losing, and started mourning long before they die.”
Shay herself doesn’t seem too concerned about what people think, according to a statement she shared with People.
“Love does not erase love. Tanner will always be AmyLou’s dad, and he will always be an important part of our family and our story,” she said. “I will always love Tanner. More than anything, I hope people will remember the advice Tanner left all of us: ‘Be kind and assume good intent.’ ”
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