After originally expressing disappointment over not having a daughter, Ashley Iaconetti is learning to appreciate her boys. On May 3, the Real Housewives of Rhode Island star gushed about the joys of having sons.
“To any expectant moms out there who have gender disappointment in having a boy,” she wrote on Instagram Stories. “One of the many wonderful things about having a little boy is that I just had my face held by his little hands and was told many times how beautiful I am.”
The Bachelor alum shares two sons with her husband Jared Haibon. The pair met while filming Bachelor in Paradise. Their boys are Dawson Demitri, born in January 2022, and Hayden Cruise, born in July 2024. In March 2025, Ashley previously confessed to feeling “gender disappointment” on an Instagram Q&A.
Ashley on regrets over not having a daughter
When someone asked if she regretted not having a daughter, Ashley responded, “I do feel sad [Jared] doesn’t get to be a girl dad … He’d be so wonderful at it.”
“I asked him last night if it makes him sad,” she added. “He said he would have liked to be a girl dad, but doesn’t want three [kids].”
She first spoke about her past gender disappointment on her Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast. Even though she “had a feeling” she was pregnant with another boy during her second pregnancy, she accepted it. “I’d be happy if we had [another boy],” she explained. “I’d want them to have that, hopefully, brother bond.”
After a rocky beginning, where at first Jared wanted to be “just friends,” he finally admitted to having feelings for Ashley. He proposed on BIP Season 3 in 2018, and they married in August 2019 in his native Rhode Island.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island airs Sundays at 9/8c on Bravo. It streams the next day on Peacock.
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