Former Olympic hero Mary Lou Retton and her family are celebrating exciting news: her daughter Skyla is expecting her first child.
Retton has had a difficult year after being hospitalized and admitted to the ICU with a rare form of pneumonia last October, before fighting back in a “truly remarkable” way.
Now, however, the family has received good news and is expecting a new arrival: Retton will become a grandmother for the first time.
The former gymnast, who has one gold, two silver and two bronze medals from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, has four daughters, but so far no grandchildren.
Mary Lou Retton (left) poses with her daughters. Skyla (second from left) is expecting her first child.
The whole family has gathered together this week to celebrate the graduation of the youngest girl, Emma.
Retton was left in intensive care last year after being discovered by a neighbor on the floor.
In a photo on Instagram, primarily to celebrate the graduation of youngest daughter Emma, Retton can be seen posing with her four daughters.
In the image, Skyla, 24, can be seen showing off her baby bump in a blue dress, while McKenna, 27, and Shayla, 29, are also present alongside Emma, 21.
Mary Lou herself, now 56, is on the left of the shot and appears to be in good health after a year of struggling to recover from intensive care.
In an interview in early 2024, she spoke about the ordeal in which a neighbor found her lying on the floor of her room struggling to breathe.
She told The Today Show’s Hoda Kotb that she’s “blessed to be here” after doctors nearly placed her on life support.
Retton, the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around title in 1984, revealed in her first interview since her hospitalization that her condition deteriorated to the point that her four daughters said goodbye for fear they would not survive the night. .
Retton, who became the first American woman to win all-around gold at the 1984 Olympics, was left fighting for her life in an ICU in October.
His daughter, McKenna Kelley, created a SpotFund account to help cover medical costs.
Retton was initially taken to the hospital, where she stayed for a “couple of days” before being sent home.
However, his condition continued to deteriorate at home, where he reached a dangerously low pulse oximeter level, a measure of the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood.
She was rushed to the hospital and immediately admitted to the ICU, where things “went very, very quickly,” said her daughter Shayla, who sat next to her mother during the interview.
Doctors first approached Shayla and two of her sisters, McKenna and Skyla, to tell them they were considering “taking the next step” and putting Retton on “life support.”
Doctors later told the trio to take their younger sister, Emma, who was in college, to the hospital.
Retton and his family then faced questions about the $459,324 they received in donations.
Retton and his family have not explained how much of the nearly $500,000 raised on SpotFund (pictured) will go toward his medical bill.
“We don’t know if he’ll survive the night,” Shayla remembers a doctor telling her.
“Emma was able to get there,” Shayla added. “So it was a huge blessing, a huge sigh of relief, to be there that night.”
The sisters placed their hands on their mother and prayed, as McKenna told her, “It’s okay, you can go.”
“They were saying goodbye to me,” Retton said, crying.
In the months following the ordeal, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in from concerned fans, leading to an unpleasant situation in itself.
Retton and her family faced questions about the $459,324 they received in public donations, and the former gymnast repeatedly refused to state where the funds were being spent.
In an interview, her daughter McKenna said that once the medical bills are paid, the family “plans to donate all remaining funds to a charity of her mother’s choice.”
Doctors told the sisters they didn’t know if Retton would survive the night.
DailyMail.com obtained court documents filed in Houston that showed Retton received $2 million in her divorce from Texas Longhorns quarterback turned real estate developer Shannon Kelley.
A neighbor found Retton unable to move and struggling to breathe lying on the bedroom floor of her $600,000 home in a gated community in Boerne, Texas, in October.
Neither McKenna nor Mary Lou herself have confirmed how much of the $459,324 was spent on medical bills, nor how much was (or will be) sent to charity.
During an interview last year, McKenna claimed her mother was left without health insurance because she couldn’t afford care due to pre-existing conditions, including “more than 30 orthopedic surgeries, including four hip replacements,” adding: “She suffers pain chronic every day. day.’
McKenna and her sisters have also cited Retton’s divorce in 2018 and disruptions to their speaking income caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as reasons for financial difficulties.
In fact, DailyMail.com revealed in January that Retton received $2 million from his divorce proceedings, and was also expected to collect around $2 million more in compensation after a legal dispute with the manufacturer of his two metal hip prostheses. .
Mail Sport contacted Retton and his family for comment at the time but did not receive a response.