Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Alliance for Women in Media
How Many Kids Does Delilah Have? Inside the Radio Host’s Family Life and Personal Tragedies
Radio host Delilah has grown a massive fanbase across the U.S. since launching her successful career in the ‘80s. Over the years, she has shared details about her kids and personal tragedies with her listeners.
How Many Kids Does Delilah Have?
Delilah welcomed 15 kids, several of whom were adopted, throughout her four marriages. However, the radio personality experienced multiple devastating losses. She said she now has “13 here and a couple in heaven” while talking about her children during an episode of the “People Every Day” podcast in April 2021.
She first became a mom at the age of 24, when she welcomed her first child, Isaiah. Delilah welcomed a daughter named Shaylah in 1996 before adopting three children from a foster home. Amid the adoption process, she found out she was pregnant.
“I went from having two biological kids … to having six children in one year,” she told CBN, before explaining that she always wanted a big family.
Not much is publicly known about her younger children, other than the fact that she decided to raise her family on a farm.
“It’s a whole lot of fried potatoes. It’s a whole lot of love and a whole lot of cooking,” Delilah told Fox News in September 2019. “We probably run through five loads, four or five loads of laundry a day, 10 pounds of potatoes a week easily, even though I’m not eating carbs. The supersize jumbo salad mixes. I try to cook every day for my kids, at least one or two meals a day. Homemade meals, so a lot of food, a lot of laughter.”
Inside Delilah’s Heartbreaking Family Tragedies
Delilah lost her son Sammy in 2012 from complications of sickle-cell anemia. He was 16 years old. Five years later, the Cedar Cove alum mourned the loss of her son Zachariah, who died by suicide at 18. Delilah lost her stepson Ryan in 2019.
“I think when you lose a child, if you don’t have coping mechanism, you’re not going to last long,” she explained.
Delilah visited a grief counselor and also received a supportive message from musician Rory Feek.
“Right after Zack passed, [Rory] reached out to me, and he said something to me that changed me,” she added. “He said, ‘Your boys are much more a part of your future, than they are a part of your past.'”
“‘Because you know where they are,'” Delilah continued. “‘And because your hope is in the Lord, you know you’ll be with them again. So now you will look forward to that day with great anticipation. You won’t ever fear death again. You will look forward to it, because you know where they are.'”
Where Is Delilah Now?
In February 2024, Delilah resurfaced in a video on TikTok, with fans blowing up the comments section with support for the Gracie Award winner. In one viral video, she baked a loaf of bread but explained that she was not supposed to be eating bread, sugar, pasta or rice.
“But that’s OK because I want to live a long time,” she told her followers. “I have a 7 year old. That means I have to get my triglycerides down and my blood pressure down so I can be around for him and his sisters and brothers and to be on the radio for years to come.”
