TikTok stars Matt and Abby Howard address the Father’s Day controversy
Abby and Matt Howard
Courtesy of Abby Howard/InstagramTikTokers Mat And Abby Howard have reflected on the backlash they received after declaring they would boycott Father’s Day last year.
During the couple’s 100th episode “Unplanned podcast”, released on Wednesday, January 8, the couple discussed a viral clip from an infamous May 2024 episode of the podcast in which 26-year-old Matt claimed he wouldn’t celebrate Father’s Day until December of that year because their June 2023 celebration was “a was a spoilsport.” .” (The couple has two sons, Griffin, 2, and August, 1.)
Abby, 25, kicked off the couple’s revisit with the clip, which attracted more than 9.4 million views and an avalanche of criticism. “Matt’s Father’s Day Birthday Saga. That was a memorable moment [the] Unplanned podcast 2024. How would you rate that moment… one out of 10? You have to include the emotional trauma,” Abby asked Matt in the new episode.
Matt replied, “Oh my god, I can laugh about it now [but] at that moment I was shocked. I find it funny now, I’m like, that’s so stupid. The words I said…were so stupid too, I obviously didn’t sound right at all.’
Matt and Abby Howard, high school sweethearts turned social media influencers, are once again causing a stir among their followers. The hosts of “Unplanned Podcast” and parents of two sons under two — Griffin, 23 months, and August, 10 months — recently revealed they are “boycotting” Father’s Day this year because it lands around Matt’s. […]
He continued, “I just looked so selfish. I looked so full of myself.”
Despite Matt’s apparent contrition, Abby said she found it “quite funny in retrospect,” before adding that she hadn’t actually seen the controversial clip and as a result didn’t know how Matt came across at the time.
“Generally speaking, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with… controversy, but I didn’t see the clip and maybe the clip looked really bad,” Abby admitted. ‘In that case, that is our responsibility. I think it was coming.”
Abby, who was pregnant with the couple’s second child, revealed at the time how she had combined her husband’s birthday with Father’s Day in 2023 as the two events fell on the same day. The couple had also just returned from a babymoon and Matt admitted that the family was very busy at the time.
TikTok couple Matt Howard and Abby Howard are once again facing setbacks due to their family cruise. Matt, 26, and Abby, 25, shared their holiday with sons Griffin, 2, and August, 12 months, via Instagram earlier this week. “So we ended up taking them for five nights and it became clear they weren’t enjoying it […]
Both Abby and Matt agreed that they would “boycott Father’s Day in the month of June,” due to last year’s turnout, and decided to celebrate the occasion in September because “nothing happens in September.”
The high school sweethearts have had their fair share of controversy over the years and were criticized again in September 2024 when they revealed that they went out for dinner with friends while their children slept in the family’s bedroom. “So we ended up taking them for five nights and it became clear they weren’t enjoying it and neither were we,” Abby wrote in an Instagram Story at the time. “So then we changed our dinner time to AFTER their bedtime and FaceTIMED the monitors while we ate. And that turned out muchhhh better for everyone!”
The message was met with widespread disapproval despite attribution We weekly that the families on the cruise “had rooms right next to each other and they took turns,” adding that the children “were never alone and the use of the baby monitors was an extra precaution.”
Abby and Matt married in July 2019 before welcoming their sons. Since becoming parents, the podcast hosts have shared their relationship and the highs and lows of their parenthood through their podcast and social media.
