Heavy "Dancing With the Stars" professional Lindsay Arnold shared maternity pictures via Instagram on June 2.
“Dancing With the Stars” professional Lindsay Arnold shared maternity pictures via Instagram on June 2, but she had to post them after her daughter, June, was born via C-section on May 3. She was nearly two weeks early.
“Never got around to sharing these maternity pics before June made her early appearance,” Arnold, 29, wrote. “Pregnancy is wild and amazing and magical and all the things and I’m just so so grateful for the blessing it is to create life and for this body that brought our sweet June to us.”
Arnold wore an ethereal off-the-shoulder white dress and went barefoot. She cradled her baby bump in all of the photos, where she had a hint of a smile.
June is Arnold’s second child. She and her husband, Samuel Lightner Cusick — who are high school sweethearts who have been married since June 2015 — are also the parents of a 2-year-old, Sage.
Arnold joined “Dancing With the Stars” for season 16 in 2013. She won her first and only Mirror Ball trophy in 2017 when she was partnered with singer-actor Jordan Fisher for season 25.
After more than a decade with “DWTS,” Arnold said she quit the series to focus on her family.
“This has been one of the hardest decisions to make but ultimately I have chosen what I feel is best for myself and my family,” the dancer wrote via Instagram on August 31, 2022. “This show has changed my life forever and will always mean the world to me.”
Arnold said it became too hard to work in Los Angeles and live in Utah. “We exhausted every option we could think of to make it work but at the end of the day none of the options felt good in my heart or felt like the right thing for our lives right now,” she wrote via Instagram.
June’s Birth Was the ‘Scariest Moment’
Arnold said she is thrilled to be June’s mother, but she wrote in an Instagram post on May 5 that bringing her into the world wasn’t easy.
“Her birth was so beautiful but also the scariest moment of our lives so far,” Arnold wrote. “Beyond grateful she is here safe and healthy.”
In a lengthy Instagram post on her social media account, the professional dancer said June came out “butt first” during the C-section and that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck.
“It was extremely difficult for them to pull her head out and the cord was compressing around her neck as they pulled,” Arnold explained via Instagram. “When they finally got her head out they quickly unraveled the cord and it was wrapped around our sweet girls neck 6 times. Very scary and shocking moment for everyone in the room.”
Arnold Faced Backlash Over Her Parenting Choice With June
The mother-of-two said she faced some criticism after she took both of her daughters on a boat ride.
She documented the experience via Instagram Stories and in one image she showed June wearing an over-sized life vest, according to a screenshot posted to the “Dancing With the Stars” subreddit.
“Hahahahaha June isn’t too sure about this life jacket literally the smallest we could find!” the “Dancing with the Stars” pro wrote, per the screenshot on Reddit.
Arnold seemingly responded to the criticism the following day.
“Sooo I made the mistake this morning of reading my dms and seeing a link to my reddit page. opened that baby up and WOW just wow,” she wrote, according to the screenshot on Reddit.