Granger Smith and Amber Smith Share Struggles After Family Tragedy

Amber Smith has opened up about some incredibly challenging moments in her life alongside her husband, Granger Smith. The couple faced a tragic loss in 2019 when their three-year-old son, River, drowned in a pool at their Texas home.

Granger detailed this heartbreaking experience in his memoir, *Like a River*, revealing that it brought him to one of his darkest points, where he seriously contemplated taking his own life.

In Amber’s forthcoming memoir, *The Girl on the Bathroom Floor*, she recounts the night of Granger’s near-suicide attempt, sharing it from his perspective. Granger, as she describes, tragically “put a 9mm cold Glock in his mouth” and later confided in her about how close he came to pulling the trigger.

Amber recalls one moment where Granger was out with friends from Boise, Idaho. They shared laughs and drinks, yet, by the end of it, he found himself feeling utterly alone. “They walked to the local bar, laughed, and told old stories,” she writes. “As the evening concluded, he found himself drunk and walking alone on the tour bus.”

Once Granger got back to the bus, he struggled to even remember the door code. Feeling the weight of his pain, he sought to dull his emotions with a weed pen. “Fearing that this would cause all the emotions and pain to flood back, he quickly grabbed it,” Amber explains.

Amber articulated how Granger was haunted by memories of their son, which played in his mind like a slideshow, tormenting him with feelings of failure as a father. “The vision of River facing the pool assaulted his thoughts,” she elaborated, expressing her deep concern for him during that moment.

Heartbreakingly, she noted, “That night, my sweet, incredible husband aimed to end the pain.” Yet, in a stroke of grace, Granger managed to pull back from the edge. As he wrestled with his despair, he screamed out to God for help, and in that moment, the grip of the gun slipped away.

Amber conveyed how deeply this struggle affected her, stating, “I’m even crying to type this. It breaks my heart that he felt this was the only way.” She wished she could have been there to reassure him, saying, “You’re a good father! I love you! We have this!”

Granger, now a pastor, turned towards his faith during that crisis. Amber recalls that the instant he reached out, the haunting visions ceased and he collapsed to the floor, overwhelmed with emotion.

The morning after, Granger sent Amber a text, hinting at the night’s events without fully revealing the truth until years later. “He texted me saying he had a ‘bad night’ and drank too much,” she shared.

Granger announced his retirement from country music in April 2024, with his final tour named after River. He reflected on those harrowing moments by considering his responsibility as a father and how it ultimately led him back to faith.

“I looked at the faces of my two kids, my two kids,” he recounted. “It was the first thing that hit me. I thought, ‘Yes, help me.’”

Since River’s passing, both Granger and Amber, who welcomed their youngest child, Maverick, in August 2021, have become passionate advocates for water safety for children.