'I Felt Guilty to God': Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson Opens Up About Devastating Miscarriage

Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson sat down for an interview for her latest 'I am Second' video. This time the former gymnast opens up about what she calls "the hardest thing I've ever had to go through."

"Since my last White Chair film, when I was 20 years old, I'd say the biggest shift in my life was I got married. Which is crazy!" Johnson says in the video while beaming from ear to ear.

In 2016, she married NFL football player Andrew East. He and Johnson connected over the pressures that come with being a competitive athlete and achieving great success at a young age.

"It's taken me two years to fully realize that my worth is not in football," East explained.

It's a message that echoes the same one Johnson shared in her first 'I am Second' video two years ago. After earning a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics, she had to quickly learn that her worth was not in how many gold medals she won, but in Christ alone.

Fast forward nearly a decade later, and Johnson was faced with her biggest battle yet – pregnancy.

"I've feared my entire life that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant," she explained. Amazingly, she did.

"When I found out I was, is the greatest moment in the world because it was basically God's miracle of, 'Yes, you've hurt your body for so many years, but this can still happen,'" Johnson said. "I went a week without being with my husband before I could tell him."

When she finally told her husband, it triggered a rush of emotion.

"I told him in person and we both started bawling...and then it was literally the next day that we miscarried," she shared.

Those same feelings of guilt and shame Johnson experienced during the 2008 Olympics came back with a vengeance.

"I had these guilty feelings of, 'If I can't even take care of a child for a week in my stomach, I can't raise a child on my own.' I felt guilty to Andrew that I had lost his child and I felt guilty to God that I had lost His child. It was just this super emotional time. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to go through.”

The couple decided to share their experiences in a YouTube video, and were amazed by the amount of support they received from around the world. Yet, they say the Bible is the only place where they got true healing.

"There's no more encouraging words, there's nothing that can really help you through hard times than knowing the Scripture," East said.

"No matter what you go through, you will always come out of it and I think if you believe in Him and have faith in Him, you'll come out stronger than you were before," Johnson shared.