Influencer Shay Martin is opening up about one way she and late husband Tanner Martin’s family have kept his memory alive after his death.
“We are still paying for Tanner’s phone number,” Shay, 29, responded to a fan who asked if Tanner’s phone was still active during a Q&A on her Instagram Stories on February 12. “Tanner’s parents are still paying for it.”
Shay added that she still uses Tanner’s phone to play music for their daughter, AmyLou, whom they welcomed 41 days before Tanner’s death at age 30 in June 2025.
“Tanner’s phone actually puts Amy Lou to bed every night,” she continued. “We have it playing lullabies. It sits like on the nightstand, kind of next to her crib. It just kind of feels like a way we can include Tanner in it.”
Shay concluded, “It feels sad to cancel his phone and to not have his phone number be his phone number.”
Tanner died following a battle with colorectal cancer, which he began documenting via social media in November 2020. He announced his own death in a pre-recorded video.
“Hey, it’s me, Tanner, if you’re watching this, I am dead,” the influencer began in the June 2025 video. “I had a heck of a life. I decided to make this video announcing my death because I saw someone did that, like, a year or so ago, and I think it’s a good opportunity to get all your thoughts out.”
Tanner continued, “You guys, life was awesome. I really enjoyed it while I was here. Hopefully, I believe, there’s something after this. I’m excited to meet those people, and hopefully we’re hanging out now and making fun of all you nerds. … There’s just a lot of people that for the afterlife, I’m excited to see them, and excited to see them not in pain and just happy.”
Tanner Martin and Shay Wright. Shay Wright/Instagram
Tanner also reflected on his fears about dying.
“I don’t know, I’m like, death is scary, but it’s also like a new adventure, you know. And I’m kind of excited for it, a little bit,” he said. “I’m excited to see what the experience is like, and hopefully it’s good.”
Tanner then thanked fans for their “support and helping to make the last years of my life here on earth, like, fun and enjoyable and helping me be comfortable.”
Less than one year before Tanner’s death, he and Shay announced that they were expecting their first child.
“It’s interesting because usually when people get pregnant they only have excitement for the future. While we are definitely excited, we are also experiencing grief, fear and anxiety,” Shay told People at the time, calling her pregnancy “a massive decision for us that took a couple years to decide. As I’m a mental health therapist, I’m very aware of the research of child development. But also aware of how to combat possible negative effects. But either way, it’s going to be hard.”
During an appearance on Matt and Abby Howard’s “Unplanned” podcast in October 2025, Shay opened up about having a baby with Tanner amid his cancer journey. She revealed that, before Tanner began treatment for his cancer in 2020, doctors recommended he bank his sperm in case the treatments made him infertile.
“He really, really wanted to be a dad,” Shay explained. “And I had always wanted to have a family. So, at that point, we were like, ‘Alright, let’s have a kid.’ … We were already pregnant [when] Tanner’s treatment stopped working.”
Shay also revealed whether or not she planned to have more kids with Tanner’s remaining embryos.
“He has just said, ‘If you feel like you would like to use the embryos later in life, I’m OK with that, and if you feel like you don’t want to, I’m OK with that too,” she continued. “So, I don’t know what the future will hold for me. For now, I pay for them every month just to keep them there and keep them alive.”
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