Zach and Tori Roloff Say They Had ‘50-50’ Chance of Having Kids with Dwarfism: It’s ‘in God’s Hands’
The couple has three children, Jackson, Lilah and Josiah, that were born with achondroplasia, the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism
Tori Roloff/Instagram
Tori and Zach RoloffTori and Zach Roloff are getting candid about their decision to have kids, despite the chance that their children could have dwarfism.
The couple — whose three children Jackson, Lilah and Josiah were born with achondroplasia, the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism — tackled the question on the latest episode of their Raising Heights podcast.
“... It's very loud, and it's very hard to ignore when people question our decision to have children when we knew that they could have dwarfism,” Tori shared on the podcast. “And we knew pretty strongly that [the children] could [have it]...”
However, the couple said they decided to take the chance because the odds of their children being born with dwarfism “was 50-50.” The Little People, Big World star believed they just “hit a dwarfism cluster somewhere in the cycle," he said.
“And if we have 3 more kids, they could all be average height,” Zach added, while also noting that the couple already made the decision to stop having kids. Tori chimed in, “We have ended it. We'll never know.”
Tori also explained in the podcast that the chances of their children having the same kind of dwarfism as Zach’s dad Matt Roloff, diastrophic dysplasia, was the same as any average couples’ chances since it was a “recessive” gene.
The pair also discussed what people have said about them “passing along” the dwarfism genes to another generation. Tori described that mindset as “sticky and very dangerous” because they had no say on what genes were passed on and it was all a matter of fate.
People are often “looking for this perfect child” and want to “make sure that their kid doesn’t have x, y and z” problems, but that at the end of the day, it’s “in God's hands," they said.
The couple, who wed in July 2015, welcomed son Jackson in 2017, daughter Lila in 2019 and their third child Josiah in 2022. Over the past few years, the pair have been candid about their life and raising their three children both on- and off-screen.
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During a 2021 Instagram Story Q&A, Tori, who does not have achondroplasia, responded to a question asking if she wished she could raise a child who doesn't have dwarfism.
"Absolutely not," Tori wrote. "I'm Obsessed with the three kids God gave me and I'd have it no other way."
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