Matt and Abby Courtesy of Abby Howard/Instagram
Matt and Abby Howard have addressed the “completely untrue” accusations about leaving their kids alone while on a family cruise.
“We take our role as parents extremely seriously and we love our children more than anything in the entire world. We’re very protective of our kids,” Matt, 26, shared in a TikTok video uploaded on Monday, September 16. “People started to speculate and believe that we had left our children alone in their staterooms — and that is just completely untrue.”
Matt added: “We had someone with our children at all times on this boat. Period.”
Matt and Abby, 25, made headlines this past weekend after sharing an Instagram Story post that alluded to FaceTiming their sons, Griffin, 2, and August, 12 months, who were sleeping while the couple went out to dinner. Abby explained on Instagram that their baby monitors didn’t “work on board” on the cruise ship, in which they vacationed for seven nights with her entire extended family.
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On Monday, Abby admitted that understood where the “misunderstanding” came from after her Instagram Story went viral.
“I ended up deleting it several hours after posting it because I could see that it was causing concern and misunderstanding,” Abby said. “I do want to say thank you so much to those of you that were concerned about the safety and wellbeing of our children.”
@matt_and_abby ♬ original sound – Matt & Abby
She added that her and Matt’s “main concern” is their two boys.
“To know that other people share those same concerns for our precious boys, it really means a lot,” she continued. “But I do want to clarify that we have not, would not, will not ever leave our children unattended. We would never ever want to put them in harm’s way in any way.”
The TikTok star went on to clear up the “baby monitor situation.” Abby explained that the boys sleep in a “blackout tent” that has a place for a monitor.
“We always turn their monitor on so we can watch and see what’s happening inside the tent — make sure they’re OK, see if they’ve fallen asleep or if they’ve woken up” Abby explained. “We just love to have eyes on them, we’re always concerned about them.”
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Further explaining the FaceTime element, Abby said that she and Matt would “take turns” being with their sons and kept the video call on — especially if they weren’t the ones staying with the boys.
“We’re so thankful for them, you guys. We spent a lot of time on this boat in our staterooms manning baby monitors,” Matt added. “If it wasn’t for Abby’s extended family, we really would have not gotten a chance to really get out of the room.”
The couple concluded their video by thanking viewers for “listening” to their side of the story.
Matt and Abby have been together since high school, getting married in July 2019. They started expanding their family three years later with the birth of their first son in July 2022. Their second child was born in August 2023.