{"id":729691,"date":"2026-06-27T18:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729691\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T18:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:45:14","slug":"cody-gakpo-liverpool-and-netherlands-striker-announces-unborn-baby-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/729691\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Gakpo: Liverpool and Netherlands striker announces unborn baby loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool<\/a> and Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo has asked for “privacy and space” following the loss of his unborn son.<\/p>\n

His partner, model Noa van der Bij, announced the news on Saturday. The couple were expecting a second child together, with the baby due in October.<\/p>\n

Van der Bij posted a picture on social media of the pair holding hands over a blanket and knitted hat.<\/p>\n

“With broken hearts, we share the devastating news that our baby boy passed away during pregnancy,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“Thank you for your love and support. Elijah Raphael Gakpo. Forever loved. Forever our son.”<\/p>\n

She then posted a photo of a candle and cross, with the message: “We went to church to light a candle. Afterward, we walked to the church playground with our son Samuel.<\/p>\n

“There was only one other child there. His name was Elijah. There could not have been a more beautiful sign from God. He reminded us that our little boy is never far away.”<\/p>\n

In a post of his own, Gakpo, who is on World Cup duty with his country, wrote: “This is an incredibly difficult time for our family.<\/p>\n

“We kindly ask for our privacy and space. Thank you for your understanding.”<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has started all three of the Netherlands’ World Cup group games to help his country progress to the knockout stages, scoring twice against Sweden.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands next play Morocco in the last 32 on Tuesday (02:00 BST) in Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool and Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo has asked for “privacy and space” following the loss of his unborn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-729691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}