“When I look back on my childhood and the way my parents raised me, I can’t think of anything negative,” Erin Bates Payne (who joined the fam on May 2, 1991) told People magazine. “Looking back, everything was really positive and we had some great memories.”
They didn’t have a TV, but “we used that instead of playing with dad,” she continued. “Or playing games and making memories as a family. So I don’t feel like I missed out on anything, and I actually think we’re smarter because of it.”
That means they were hoping for a big offspring of their own after she married Charles “Chad” Stephen Payne III in 2013. Due to a blood clotting disorder, the couple suffered several miscarriages before welcoming Carson in May 2015, Brooklyn in August 2016, Everly in May 2018, Holland in November 2019, and Finley in January 2022. Although she believed she would not be able to have any more children, she expanded her family with William in October 2023 and Henry in August 2025. Chad posted on Instagram that Erin went into septic shock after giving birth to Henry. “We would appreciate your prayers for Erin as she continues to recover from several complications.”
By October, she revealed she had started walking, writing on Instagram: “I may be a little shaky, but it was a step I never thought I’d walk again.”
