Aspyn Ovard, star of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County,” has shared a series of personal photos documenting her family’s nearly four-year struggle since her eldest daughter was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“Almost 4 years and I still haven’t found the words to describe the pain,” Ovard wrote on Instagram Friday, posting a carousel of images that traced her daughter Cove’s illness from a fourth birthday party she didn’t expect the girl to reach, through hospital visits Ovard described as “triggering,” to a family trip to Mexico taken just three months after the birth of Ovard’s youngest daughter, Elle, now 2.
“Didn’t think she would get to turn 4,” Ovard wrote beneath a photo of Cove, now 7, surrounded by balloons and cupcakes. “Celebrated 3 more birthdays since, always thinking it’s the last.”
Of the Mexico trip, she wrote: “Took my 3-month-old to Mexico because I’m always trying to make my little girl’s dreams come true. Always racing against time.”
The post ended with a recent photo of Ovard and Cove together. “Always hurting,” she wrote. “Always wondering how much time is left.”
Ovard, 30, first disclosed her daughter’s diagnosis publicly in the premiere episode of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County,” which began streaming on Hulu Thursday.
“Everything happened just so out of nowhere. One day she was OK and the next day she wasn’t. At the hospital, we were like, ‘It has to be fine.’ You can’t fathom they’re actually gonna tell you that your baby has cancer, and that it’s terminal and she could be gone in a month.”
Ovard said doctors have called Cove a “walking miracle,” noting it is unusual for children with her type of cancer to survive this long.
Ovard and her ex-husband, Parker Ferris, met in high school and married in 2015. The couple also shares a 5-year-old daughter, Lola. Ovard filed for divorce in 2024 after learning Ferris had been secretly drinking alcohol, filing the paperwork the same day she announced the birth of their third daughter. She is now in a relationship with Bri Davis and her husband, Billy Davis.
Though their relationship is mostly amicable now, Ovard and Ferris were shown arguing over their daughter’s diagnosis in the closing scene of the show’s premiere, with Ovard accusing him of “nitpicking” her parenting to avoid confronting his grief.
“You grasp onto anything that you can to distract yourself from the grief of the fact that our daughter is going to die! You know that’s true.”
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County” is currently streaming on Hulu.
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