Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts has a new memoir and in it, he revealed that he and an ex-girlfriend had a child when he was in his early 20's, which they put up for adoption.
According to People:
In one of the most difficult moments of the book, the bassist reveals that when he was in his early 20s, his then-girlfriend of one month, Maggie, got pregnant the first time they slept together. She placed the baby girl for adoption, even though DeMarcus wanted to be part of his child’s life, he writes.
“We’d had sex one time, but I knew it. I knew she was pregnant,” DeMarcus writes, describing the scary moment after he realized the condom broke.
“[Maggie and I] discussed many options, including getting married and raising the child ourselves, but we quickly determined we’d be making that decision for the wrong reason,” DeMarcus, now 48, explains in the book. “Abortion was never an option, so we began to discuss adoption.”
DeMarcus adds: “It became evident that Maggie wanted nothing to do with me. There was no interest in the two of us somehow working things out so we might raise our child together.”
Most heartbreaking of all, DeMarcus writes that he never got to meet his baby girl, though he doesn’t blame Maggie for her decision. (“In the state of Tennessee, the mother has all the power,” he writes.)
“From the very beginning, I wanted to be in [my baby’s] life,” DeMarcus writes inShotgun Angels. “But her mother, Maggie, didn’t want either one of us in her life. That was a hard pill to swallow. I understand that sometimes life sends us reeling because of unexpected situations. But my heart in that moment, though scared, still desired to be in this beautiful child’s life.”
The memoir is called Shotgun Angels: My Story of Broken Roads and Unshakeable Hope, out today. Click here to read more.