I was 19, pregnant & arguing with my boyfriend when his texts stopped – then an Instagram post tore my world apart
MAYCI Neeley is a household name since appearing on the hit reality TV show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but now, she has revealed the heartbreaking story of her first love.
While her life may seem picture perfect with a doting husband, two kids, and another on the way, she has now shared her tragic past.
7
7
7
7
She's often seen on Instagram posing with her husband, Jacob Neeley, but he isn't the biological father of the nine-year-old son, though.
Before her marriage, Mayci was in a relationship with Arik Mack. Then her life changed forever.
In 2015, Mayci, who was just 19, was at university on a tennis scholarship when she found out she was pregnant.
Mayci described Arik as a bit of a wild guy" who was "so full of life."
So she had concerns about him settling down with the arrival of their baby.
But he assured Mayci he was ready to be a dad and marry her.
While Mayci says she didn't want to give up her tennis career, she decided to leave university and move back to her families home for support.
Arik decided to stay at the university, which was in a different city in Utah.
"Being away from Arik was harder than I thought. My hormones were all over the place," she told The Mirror.
"On 24 March 2015, Arik and I had a fight. The pressure on us had become too much and we started to argue over text."
Unveiling the Hidden Lives of Mormon Wives
"Little did I know that Arik was driving while texting me. Frustrated, I stopped replying to his messages."
Mayci didn't think much of it when he stopped replying, that was until she checked social media later that day.
Tragic Realisation
While scrolling through Instagram, she noticed a series of tribute posts to her boyfriend.
She saw a post that read: "I'll miss you, Arik", which had a photo of him.
The next post said, "RIP."
Shocked by what she was seeing, she called his father, who confirmed Arik had tragically passed away due to texting and driving and had been killed on impact.
7
7
Reflecting on that time of heartbreak, the reality TV star said: "I was 13 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Me and him got into a disagreement.
I remember calling him and hoping he would answer.
Mayci Neeley
"Mainly me, I was upset with him, and we were sending texts back and forth and one of his texts was unfinished at the end of it.
"I remember calling him and hoping he would answer. And the worst part of it was just hearing the dial tone and being like, 'Please God, answer the phone.' And I called his dad and his dad told me that he passed away in a car accident... It was the most traumatic time of my life."
"I was utterly destroyed. I had no idea that he was driving – I never would have replied to him if I knew," she continued.
"Arik was my best friend and suddenly, he was gone."
"My baby would never be held by their father. It was too much to bear."
Tragically, Mayci found out the day after he boyfriend died that she was having a baby boy.
The pregnant teen sank into a deep depression as she tried to cope with the grief while carrying their only child, Hudson.
The loss of the life she had imagined with Arik was too much for Mayci, who also revealed she received negative comments from those around her.
"You're young, you have plenty of time to find a father for your son," said one, while another quipped: "At least you'll never have to co-parent."
In September 20115, Mayci gave birth to their son and says he saved her life.
Speaking on the show, Mayci said: "I truly feel like he was my first love, and it just destroyed me.
"I didn't want to live, to be honest, and if it wasn't for my son, I don't even know if I'd be here today."
7
Finding Love Again
Mayci decided to make the brave decision to go back to university while navigating being a single mum.
When Hudson was seven months old, Jacob Neeley came into her life after meeting through mutual friends.
"I was terrified of getting hurt again but after four months, I couldn't deny my feelings any longer. He was kind and funny and made me feel safe," she wrote for The Mirror.
The pair began dating and were engaged in November 2017 before getting married in 2018.
Jacob has since gone on to adopt Hudson, and he and Mayci had a daughter through IVF called Harlow.
Now Mayci is pregnant again and announced the news on social media.
"Baby #3 is on the way and we couldn't be happier!" she wrote in an Instagram post.
Where to seek grief support
Need professional help with grief?
Child Bereavement UK Childbereavementuk.org
Cruse Bereavement Cruse.org.uk
Relate Relate.org.uk
The Good Grief Trust Thegoodgrieftrust.org
You can also always speak to your GP if you're struggling.
You're Not Alone
Check out these books, podcasts and apps that all expertly navigate grief…
Griefcast: Cariad Lloyd interviews comedians on this award-winning podcast.
The Madness Of Grief by Rev Richard Coles (£9.99, W&N): The Strictly fave writes movingly on losing his husband David to alcoholism.
Terrible, Thanks For Asking: Podcast host Nora McInerny encourages non-celebs to share how they're really feeling.
Good Mourning by Sally Douglas and Imogen Carn (£14.99, Murdoch Books): A guide for people who've suffered sudden loss, like the authors who both lost their mums.
Grief Works: Download this for daily meditations and expert tips.
How To Grieve Like A Champ by Lianna Champ (£3.99, Red Door Press): A book for improving your relationship with death.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
TikTok star Khaby Lame leaves US after being detained by immigration officials
Khaby Lame, considered the most popular TikTok star in the world, has left the US after being detained by immigration officials. The influencer was detained in Las Vegas on Friday for allegedly staying in the country after his visa expired. He then voluntarily is one of hundreds of people caught in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which includes cross-country raids and an increasing number of deportations, and which has also sparked days of protest against Immigration and Customs has not publicly commented on his voluntary departure. ICE has said he arrived in the US on 30 April and then overstayed his said he was released the same day he was detained and subsequently left the country.A voluntary departure allows people who are facing removal from the US to avoid having a deportation order on their immigration record. Deportation orders can prevent immigrants from being allowed back into the US for up to a decade. The 25-year-old Senegalese-Italian influencer, who has 162.3 million TikTok followers, became popular during the pandemic for his silent videos and signature facial has been arrested by ICE under Trump?"It's my face and my expressions which make people laugh," Lame told The New York Times in 2021, adding that his reactions speak "a global language."As an Italian citizen he is allowed to travel to the US for business or tourism for up to 90 days without a visa. Lame attended the Met Gala in May. Otherwise, it is unclear what he was doing while in the deportation has made headlines as he is one of the more high-profile people to be deported in Trump's latest surge to cut illegal immigration into the country. Some 51,000 undocumented migrants were in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention as of early June - the highest on record since September 2019.
The Sun
34 minutes ago
- The Sun
How Beach Boys ‘genius' Brian Wilson brought sun-kissed California to world with some of the greatest songs ever made
GOD Only Knows how Brian Wilson created pop's most sublime tunes. The death of The Beach Boys icon at 82 marks the passing of one of the few artists who genuinely deserved to be called a 'genius'. 8 8 8 He was the composer, performer and producer Sir Paul McCartney looked up to. Despite penning all those era-defining songs with John Lennon in The Beatles, Macca placed God Only Knows above them all — and admitted that 'it reduces me to tears every time I hear it'. He performed the song with Brian in 2002 and, as you won't be surprised to hear, 'broke down' during the sound check. Among Brian's other best known songs, mainly co-writes, were Good Vibrations, Surfin' USA, I Get Around and Wouldn't It be Nice. Last night, his children said in a statement: 'We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. 'We are at a loss for words right now. We realise that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.' His daughter Daria added: 'I don't know what to say. I loved him in ways I can't explain. He was my dad.' Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards Ronnie Wood said he was 'in mourning'. John Lennon's son Sean Ono Lennon described the loss of 'our American Mozart'. And Nancy Sinatra said: 'His cherished music will live forever as he travels through the Universe and beyond. Brian Wilson's last ever performance of iconic Beach Boys hit just two years before his death aged 82 "God bless you, sweet Brian. 'One of the biggest thrills of my life was singing 'California Girls' with Brian.' Brian was born in Inglewood, southern California, in 1942, the first son of Audree and Murry Wilson. From a very early age, he was recognised for his musical gifts. He had perfect pitch and could sing back phrases sung to him as a baby. Brian had a difficult relationship with his dad. He, along with his siblings, suffered psychological and physical abuse by their father. The singer's 2016 memoir, I am Brian Wilson, paints Murry as 'violent' and 'cruel', but also suggests that some claims against him were exaggerated or unfounded. Murry had remembered how, after hearing only a few verses of The Caissons Go Rolling Along, Brian, then an infant, was able to reproduce the tune. At 12, the Wilson family acquired an upright piano, which Brian spent hours and hours teaching himself to play. 8 8 He and his younger brothers, Carl and Dennis, got into the pop sounds of the day — R&B, rock 'n' roll and doo-wop. Despite being partly deaf in one ear, Brian joined Carl and their cousin Mike Love to form a high school group, Carl and the Passions, later bringing in Dennis and Al Jardine to form the Pendletones. Brian co-wrote the group's first song, Surfin', which, in turn, inspired their record label to change their name to The Beach Boys. The rest, as they say, is history, As the chief inspirational force, he brought the sun-kissed Californian lifestyle — surfing, fast cars and parties — to a world emerging from post-war austerity into the Swinging Sixties. The band had adopted a clean-cut, college-boy image, sang about dreamy California Girls and be- came the West Coast's answer to The Beatles. Brian married his first wife, Marilyn, in 1964 and marital strains were to influence the lyrical direction of his masterpiece, The Beach Boys' eleventh album, Pet Sounds. Later that year, Brian had suffered a panic attack on a flight just hours after appearing on TV show Shindig! This prompted him to give up live appearances to concentrate on writing and production. His giant artistic strides began. It's also worth noting that this was the era of psychedelic drugs, notably LSD, and Brian was one of countless musicians to try them out, curious about their effect on songwriting. So came a huge change of tack in his career, leading to his rare mastery of instrumentation, harmony and recording technology. In his later years, Wilson was a man of few words who let his music do the talking. 'A SPIRITUAL RECORD' He struggled with mental illness and found interviews uncomfortable. But, during the times I met him, I found him polite and gracious and steadfastly sincere. In 2016, during a promotional visit to London, I asked Wilson to describe his happiest memory of making Pet Sounds — to some, the greatest album of all time. 'Well, I loved making God Only Knows with my brother Carl. He had a good voice,' he replied, fifty years after its release. It was his understated but heartfelt way of paying tribute to his youngest sibling, blessed with an angelic voice, who had died from cancer in 1998. He told me he had been striving to 'make a choir, a nice choir' with Pet Sounds. Through Carl and the rest of the group's glorious lead and harmony singing, he succeeded. Brian was responsible for the sweeping symphonic arrangements and wall-of-sound production that doffed a hat to Phil Spector's girl group work — but he took it to whole new places. He gave the album weird and wonderful sound effects — bicycle bells, trains, Hawaiian strings, Coke cans and barking dogs among them. 'And we had little toy instruments,' recalled Brian. 'We just thought we'd put them in there for the kids. I knew it would be a very special album,' he continued, before exclaiming, 'I just knew it!'. 8 8 In his memoir, I Am Brian Wilson, he elaborated further: 'I love the whole Pet Sounds record. 'I got a full vision out of it in the studio. "After that, I said to myself that I had completed the greatest album I will ever produce. 'It was a spiritual record. When I was making it, I looked around at the musicians and the singers and I could see their halos.' He also talked about the impact of The Beatles: 'I met Paul McCartney later in the Sixties, in a studio. I was almost always in a studio back then. 'We had a little chat about music. "Everyone knows now that God Only Knows was Paul's favourite song — not only his favourite Beach Boys song, but one of his favourite songs, period. "It's the kind of thing people write in liner notes and say on talk shows. "When people read it, they kind of look at that sentence and keep going. "But think about how much it mattered to me when I first heard it. 'I was the person who wrote God Only Knows and here was another person — the person who wrote Yesterday and And I Love Her and so many other songs — saying it was his favourite. 'It really blew my mind. He wasn't the only Beatle who felt that way. 'John Lennon called me after Pet Sounds — phoned me up, I think the British say — to tell me how much he loved the record.' I'm in a better frame of mind these days. It feels great . . . it's like I see some light. Things make sense to me again Brian Wilson It's sad to think that Wilson, this architect of the band's unique sunlit sound, went on to suffer years in the darkness in the Seventies and Eighties. Mental illness allied to drug abuse left Brian lost in a world of his own from which few believed he would return. But his rehabilitation began in 1988 with his self-titled first solo album. It continued with I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (1995), Orange Crate Art (1995 with long-time collaborator Van Dyke Parks), Imagination (1998) and Gettin' In Over My Head (2004). That same year, he finally realised his lost masterpiece SMiLE. 'That was amazing,' Brian told me. "I never ever imagined it coming out until my manager and (second) wife (Melinda) said: 'You ought to try to finish it.'' He also released a Pet Sounds Live album, but I asked whether he would consider playing the album again in its entirety in concert. 'I don't think we'll be doing that again,' he said with quite alarming frankness. 'We just thought we drove it into the ground.' Last year, it was revealed Brian was suffering from dementia. A conservatorship was awarded to his family, his publicist and manager after Melinda, his wife of 29 years, had died. 8 At the time of her passing, Brian said, 'Melinda was more than my wife. She was my saviour. "She gave me the emotional security. I needed to have a career. "She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. "She was my anchor.' I remember speaking to Brian on his 66th birthday in 2008, when, in the company of Melinda, life was looking up for this American music icon. Sporting a full head of brushed back grey hair, he spoke movingly about his situation. 'I walk every day for exercise so I can keep alive', he said. 'My state of being has been elevated because I've been exercising and writing songs. 'I'm in a better frame of mind these days. It feels great . . . it's like I see some light. Things make sense to me again.' Not just God, but the whole world, knows how special you were.
BreakingNews.ie
42 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Brian Wilson: Beach Boys star who surfed the waves to success
Brian Wilson, who has died aged 82, was considered one of the world's most influential recording artists. Born in California in 1942, he showed early musical talent, teaching harmonies to his younger brothers Dennis and Carl and obsessively studying piano. Advertisement In 1961, Wilson, his brothers, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine recorded Surfin', a local hit that marked the birth of The Beach Boys. Signed to Capitol Records a year later, the band shaped 1960s American pop with hits such as Surfin' USA, I Get Around and California Girls. Brian Wilson was a member of The Beach Boys (Ian West/PA) The 1966 album Pet Sounds, which included the track God Only Knows, remains a landmark in modern music, influencing generations of artists including Sir Paul McCartney, who called it his favourite record. Sir Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson and Carole King were also fans, while The Who's drummer, Keith Moon, fantasised about joining the Beach Boys. Advertisement The band ranks among the most popular groups of the rock era, with more than 30 singles in the Top 40 and worldwide sales of more than 100 million and they were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Originally unfinished in the 1960s, he finally completed and released Smile in 2004 to critical acclaim. Wilson struggled with mental illness and drug addiction, but in later years he toured globally.
