What happened to Walker Hayes’ daughter?

Country singer Walker Hayes recently shared a heartbreaking photo at the gravesite Oakleigh Klover Hayes on Instagram. Oakleigh was Hayes’ daughter. There’s only one date on the marker: June 6, 2018.

Every year, Hayes posts the same annual gravesite photo to his Instagram, usually captioning with a red heart emoji. This year, on the six-year anniversary of Oakleigh’s death, he posted a gold heart for what would have been her golden birthday. In the photo, a vase of flowers sits at the top of the marker and Hayes’ and Laney’s feet, along with the feet of their six other children, ages 7 to 17, are pictured.

Even though June 6 was already hard enough on Hayes, it could have been even worse. His wife, Laney nearly died on that day, too.

The story behind the tragic passing of Walker Hayes’ daughter, Oakleigh

On June 6, 2018, Oakleigh Klover Hayes died in childbirth due to a rare uterine rupture in Laney Hayes. Oakleigh’s blood flow was tragically cut off and she suffocated. Doctors were able to save Laney’s life in an emergency surgery, but Oakleigh did not make it.

At the time, Hayes shared a statement on X (formally Twitter) about what happened and canceled all his upcoming appearances.

The “You Broke Up with Me” singer later shared his thoughts with People. “‘When Laney wakes up, how do I tell her? How am I the one to explain, it’s a girl, but you know, she died? I knew that was just going to crush Laney… I really just hoped that this wasn’t going to be the worst day of my life, even though it kind of already was,” Hayes said.

Hayes’ song “AA” is about the day he buried Oakleigh

After Oakleigh died, Laney Hayes was no longer able to carry a pregnancy, although she otherwise physically recovered from the traumatic event. Walker Hayes, a recovering alcoholic, later wrote his “AA” about how he almost relapsed on the day Oakleigh was buried.

“The day we buried our daughter Oakleigh, who was our seventh [child], I sat in an AA meeting that night. I could still see the dirt on my shoe from her grave that we had filled in. And man, an AA meeting just saved my life … That night I actually drove to a bar and I wanted to just get hammered and get in a fight, and I didn’t have my wallet. And when I went home, I just broke down,” the country singer said on the Ty Bentli Show the year Oakleigh died.

“It’s a process, and it will be forever,” Laney told People following the loss of her daughter.

Amid such terrible loss, it’s reassuring to see Walker and Laney still supporting one another in their shared grief year after year.