Socialite's sister accuses her of sharing details about pregnancy loss against her will in memoir

Daily Mail​

26-04-2025

The sister of a popular socialite has accused her of sharing intimate details about her tragic pregnancy loss against her will in her new memoir.
Sarah Hoover - an art consultant, influencer, and the wife of artist Tom Sachs - released her debut book The Motherload: Episodes from the Brink of Motherhood back in January.
Described as 'an unflinching motherhood memoir that dares to ask what happens when "what to expect when you're expecting" turns out to be months of rage, anguish, brain fog, and a total surrender of sex, career, and identity,' the tome quickly rose in popularity.
But now, someone who claimed to be Sarah's estranged sister has unleashed a furious tirade against it, in which she alleged that Sarah included a segment describing the moment her son was born stillborn - despite her requesting that Sarah not talk about it publicly.
The woman, who did not share her name, slammed Sarah's book in a scathing post on Reddit, entitled, 'Am I the a**hole for wanting to hold my sister accountable for publishing information about my private trauma where my baby boy died without asking me?'
In the lengthy post, the woman explained that she lost her son nine years ago during childbirth.
'Nine years ago I lost a baby boy in childbirth at 41 weeks who was stillborn,' she wrote.
'This really f**ked me up, like to the point that it still makes me very sad after nine years.'
The woman explained that about four years after the tragedy, Sarah spoke about it during an interview with 'an internationally read magazine' while discussing her own journey to motherhood.
'She included very private details and information about my son who died and my stillbirth - medical information and other things I would never have agreed to share,' the woman wrote on Reddit.
'She did not ask my permission and did not give me any warning ahead of time.'
In a 2021 essay for Vogue, Sarah said, '[My sister's] little boy was dead on his due date, and she was nursing the wounds of her emergency c-section; a scar with nothing to show for it.
'We counted his fingers and toes and made ink prints of his feet and kissed his head until he turned cold and stopped smelling like a baby.
'He was buried the following week next to his paternal grandfather, dressed in the outfit my mom had bought him in Paris, a white Peter Pan collar and blue velvet pants, which he had been meant to wear home from the hospital.'
On Reddit, the woman said she 'was very triggered' reading the article and had 'an emotional breakdown' afterwards.
'It was the idea that all these strangers were reading about my private life and had access to information that I would never have shared with them - it made me feel first of all like I was back in the moments after my son died and secondly, like I was being continually re-traumatized by all these people reading about it without my consent,' she added.
'Acquaintances/work colleagues/etc. who I never told about this experience started asking me about it and trying to talk to me about it - people who I would not have shared with about my private life in that level of detail.'
She said she told Sarah she thought it was wrong and they ended up having a 'huge fight' about it - and have 'essentially not spoken since.'
She claimed that Sarah did not apologize, but vowed that 'she would ask her permission if she were ever to write about it again' the last time they spoke.
Flash forward to now, however, and the woman has claimed that the influencer, who has racked up more than 54,000 followers on Instagram, included the story of her stillbirth in her new memoir.
'I knew that she was publishing a book, but I assumed per our last communication that she would not include information about my son's death or anything about my family in the book. Well, I was wrong,' she continued.
'I am very angry again at the inclusion of my life and my son's death ... I did not read a draft and did not give permission or consent for what was included.'
The woman also accused her of 'lying' in the book, claiming that her retelling of the events weren't 'accurate.'
'She says she held my son in the hospital and while I was very out of it emotionally I am certain to the point where I would die on the hill that she never held my son,' she wrote.
'She says she held him while he was "still warm" which also seems impossible since no one held him directly out of my uterus and he was dead and logically could not be warm.
'I know these things only matter to me and don't matter to the general point of her book's narrative.
'But, when the only the only way you get to be a mom to your son is through those very few memories you have, it feels like a really big deal for someone to do this.'
She concluded the post by admitting that she was considering taking legal action against her sister, and asked Reddit users if they thought she would be in the wrong for doing so.
'Would I be the a**hole if I tried to take legal action? Is there a perspective where I am the a**hole for being angry about this?' she asked.
'Do people think what she did is not such big deal? My family is kind of split on this and my parents are very complicit in her behavior and actions and have been very supportive of her and the book.
'I also feel bad that this has destroyed our once very close family and my parents are getting older.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to Sarah for comment.
Sarah's publicist told Page Six that they wouldn't comment on the matter because it was 'a family matter,' but said: 'As a memoirist, Sarah writes from her memory and her lived experience.'
Sarah has gained fame for her 'essays on pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood,' per her bio.
The Vogue piece - which focused on 'the traumatic birth of her son and ensuing postpartum depression' - was what shot her into the spotlight.