Nara Smith, 24, says going to couples therapy before a crisis struck helped her and her husband, Lucky Blue Smith, navigate their daughter’s cancer diagnosis.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy,” Smith, a model and TikTok creator known for her viral cooking-from-scratch videos, opened up about the difficult period when her daughter Whimsy Lou underwent chemotherapy.
Smith said she and her husband didn’t fully process their daughter’s diagnosis until the physical effects of chemotherapy set in, including hair loss and nausea.
“We started crumbling a little bit,” Smith told podcast host Alex Cooper.
Smith and her husband took turns leaning on each other, with each stepping in to lift the other up whenever they felt they couldn’t go on, she said.
“When I had a hard day with it, he picked me up. When he had a hard day, I picked him up, and we were like, ‘Let’s just keep going,’” Smith said. “It felt like that game where you’re tied to someone else, and you have to make it to the finish line together.”
The couple also has three other children: Rumble Honey, Slim Easy, and Fawnie Golden.
Looking back, going to couples therapy early in their relationship gave them the tools to navigate this period of their lives, Smith, whose content is often associated with the “tradwife” aesthetic, said.
She added that she first suggested couples therapy because she knew they had grown up differently and wanted them to build “a strong foundation” from the start.
Many people assume couples therapy is only for troubled relationships, but she doesn’t see it that way.
“Sometimes nothing’s wrong, and you just want to have the tools to have the best life. I want to have the best life in every aspect of my life, and that to me comes with work,” she said.
Smith said one of the main things she and her husband learned was how to communicate with each other, which “came in really handy” during their daughter’s treatment.
“Even though I might have felt whatever I felt, I created the space for him to feel the way he felt, and for him to communicate that with me, and for us to work through that together and really be heard by each other,” she said.
Smith revealed in an Instagram post in early July that her daughter had been diagnosed with cancer late last year, though she did not disclose the type. At the time of the post, her daughter had already completed treatment and was in remission, an update Smith shared two weeks later.
Smith joins a growing number of celebrities who have spoken openly about the benefits of couples therapy.
In 2024, Rob Lowe said he and his wife, Sheryl Berkoff, see couples counseling as a way to maintain their relationship.
“It’s like taking your car in and making sure the engine’s running great,” he said.
In 2025, Manny Jacinto said the best marriage advice he’s ever gotten is to go to couples therapy when things are good.
“It goes for therapy in general. You don’t want to be going to couples therapy when you’re in a really bad spot because sometimes it might be too late,” Jacinto said.