Mikayla Matthews Opens Up About ‘Traumatic’ Pregnancy at Age 16

Mikayla Matthews is candidly opening up about her first pregnancy.

Matthews, 25, appeared on the May 21 episode of The Squeeze with Tay Lautner and spoke at length about the sexual abuse she endured in her younger years and how it continued to affect her as she learned she was pregnant at age 16.

After moving out of her mother’s house at age 15, she met her now-husband Jace Terry through her sister and his roommate, who worked together.

“I think I got pregnant literally a year, almost a year exactly after I moved out of my house at 15,” she said. “And then I’m jumping into now being a mom and raising a kid at 16, 17. I think all that was traumatizing, but also it was so helpful being with someone like Jace because, again, he’s been like so patient with me and he like truly wants me to be the best version of myself.”

Even though Jace is now a “safe place” for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, the start of their relationship was challenging.

She explained she “had only known him for like a month before” she got pregnant. At the time, she was living with her sister and she eventually dropped out of high school when she learned she was expecting.

“I didn’t really tell any of my friends. I kind of just dropped off the face of the earth,” she remembered. 

She explained that she found out she was pregnant after she spent time in a sauna and passed out. Her mom took her to the hospital, and a blood test showed she was in the early stages of pregnancy.

“Immediately,” she decided she wanted to “keep” the baby, she recalled, noting that Jace’s “immediate reaction” was to support whatever she wanted to do. Even though Mikayla and her mom still hadn’t talked about the abuse she had faced, she still relied on her because she was one of the few people who knew about the pregnancy. 

“None of my friends knew. So I was just so isolated and alone,” she remembered. “And at this point, I barely knew Jace. . . . So, although I wasn’t comfortable around [my mom], it was just like more comfortable than with Jace at that point.” At the same time, “being around her [mom] was obviously very triggering,” she added.

Mikayla and Jace ultimately welcomed their son Beckham in 2017. They married in 2018. The family welcomed a daughter, Haven, in August 2019 and a son named Tommie in November 2021. She is currently pregnant with their fourth child. 

Mikayla said that after she welcomed her first child, she still “internalized all of that hurt and abuse” and only recently began working through it in therapy. During her second pregnancy, she noted that “sex became very triggering,” but Jace didn’t know about her past. 

Mikayla would have sex with him in hopes it would help their relationship but then, she said, “Subconsciously I was resenting him and making him the abuser where it wasn’t the case.”

She added that she’s already “learned a lot through therapy” about why that happens and how to deal with those triggers. Mikayla praised Jace as “really patient” with her as she dealt with both her lasting trauma and her struggles with chronic illness.

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She noted that she started to open up to him about some of the abuse she faced about “six years ago.”

“I had to kind of tell him because it would get so frustrating,” she explained. “And I feel like a lot of that anger was being put on him and he felt a lot of rejection of like, ‘I’m not attractive. My wife doesn’t want to sleep with me.’ And that made me feel so guilty.”

She noted that she would react defensively, but opening up to him more helped him “really understand.” She added, “He’s very gentle with me because he knows the situation.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.