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Shay Martin is opening up about her new husband, Hunter, and how he helped her find love again in the wake of her late husband Tanner Martin’s death.
“‘I would want to get to know Tanner,’” Shay recalled Hunter telling her when they first connected in an interview with Today digital published on Tuesday, August 4, revealing the eight words her new spouse said that opened up the influencer to the possibility of love again.
Tanner died in June 2025 following a five-year battle with stage 4 colorectal cancer. He was 30. He is survived by Shay and daughter AmyLou, 15 months, who the pair welcomed just one month before his death.
After Tanner’s death, Shay confessed that she “cried a whole lot” while processing her grief.
“I didn’t get divorced from Tanner,” she told the outlet. “I still loved him, and I was always going to love him.”
When Shay was ready to start dating again, she wanted to find a person who wouldn’t try to compete with or be deterred by what she and Tanner had
“He was the first guy who didn’t see Tanner as a threat,” Shay recalled. “I think it takes a confident, empathetic man to do that.”
More than a year after Tanner’s death, Shay gave an update on how she and AmyLou were doing. Shay revealed in the post that she found a second chance at love.
“I know there are a lot of people on the internet that care a lot about AmyLou and I, so if that’s you this message is for you,” Shay said over a compilation video shared via Instagram on Sunday, August 2. “I’ve seen a lot of questions asking how AmyLou and I are doing and where we are in life. It’s been a year filled with both heartbreaking sadness but also incredible blessings. In the past year we’ve welcomed AmyLou, we’ve lost Tanner, I moved to Arizona, where I grew up, and I found love again.”
Shay explained that Tanner wanted her to “find someone who would love AmyLou as his own and honor the life” the couple “built together.” Shay shared that Hunter fulfilled that one wish with no hesitation.
“I am incredibly grateful to say that I found that person. He has never asked me to leave Tanner behind. Never. He honors my memory with Tanner,” she reflected. “He honors Tanner. He celebrates the love that I had and have for Tanner. And he loves AmyLou the way Tanner would want AmyLou to be loved.”
Shay emphasized that “moving forward is not the same as moving on” from Tanner.
“I remember thinking to myself, even during the five years Tanner fought cancer, ‘I’m never going to remarry. I’m going to be alone and I’m just going to live with that,’” she said. “And eventually, I changed and decided that there is enough love to give, you can never run out of love. And I will never graduate from grief.”
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