Two Years After Her Daughter’s Death, Alexa PenaVega Shares How She Navigates Grief
Two years after losing daughter Indy, Alexa PenaVega marked the anniversary with a poignant Instagram of the three children she shares with husband Carlos holding Indy's photo, opening up about a grief that still lingers.
Alexa PenaVega marked a brutal anniversary this week, and she did it with the kind of honesty that stops you in your tracks. The Spy Kids alum shared a two-year remembrance of her daughter Indy, who was stillborn in April 2024, and talked about how her family is learning to carry both grief and joy at the same time.
On Monday, April 13, Alexa, 37, posted a photo of her three kids with husband Carlos PenaVega, 36 — Ocean, 9, Kingston, 6, and Rio, 4 — each of them holding a picture of Indy. The caption was short, raw, and exactly the point:
"Two years ago today we lost our beautiful daughter, Indy."
From there, she explained that nothing about losing a child is something you ever imagine, let alone prepare for. But she and Carlos are trying to live in that weird overlap where heartache and happiness coexist — her words likened it to a little dance. Even inside that deep pain, she said they found a spark of joy that she credits entirely to her faith. In her view, Indy's short life planted a seed in their family: a new lens on what matters, a clearer purpose, and a gratitude for what they still have. Indy, she said, is part of everything they do now, and they hold onto the hope of being reunited with her in heaven.
How we got here
The timeline around Indy's loss and what Alexa has shared publicly has come in pieces, so here it is cleanly:
- April 2024: Indy is stillborn. Alexa later explained they had a heartbeat literally minutes before delivery, and then everything changed. In the moment, she said she could not fully process what was happening.
- January 2025: On YouTube, Alexa called it a surprise loss. She talked about the strange mix of piercing pain and an inexplicable sense of peace that met them right in the worst moment — and how, even then, they still felt blessed.
- April 2025: At the one-year mark, she posted a photo holding Indy and wrote that it was the most painful moment of her life — she remembered struggling to breathe, and nothing felt real.
- April 13, 2026: Two years on, she shares the new family photo with Indy's picture and reflects on moving forward without ever moving on.
Alexa has been frank about what grief looks like over time. She worried early on that she would not be OK months down the line, and part of healing, she says, is having to relive the experience more than once — which hurts every time.
It is rare to see a family talk this openly about stillbirth, especially with details as specific as losing a heartbeat minutes before delivery. It is even rarer to watch them hold space for both devastation and joy without pretending one cancels out the other. If you have followed Alexa and Carlos for any length of time, that tracks — they are not sugarcoating it, but they are not letting go of the light either.