What happened to Emily Maynard’s fiancé Ricky Hendrick? Former Bachelorette lost daughter’s father in tragic crash

Ricki Hendrick, the daughter of The Bachelorette star Emily Maynard, recently confirmed through an Instagram Story on August 26, 2025, that she is expecting her first child. Notably, she was named after her late father, Ricky Hendrick, a race car driver, who lost his life in an airplane crash more than 10 years ago, as per Us Weekly.

Although Maynard has not commented anything about the latest news of the child, Ricki additionally posted a video on the same platform and wrote:

“My heart is so full, yet my stomach is so empty because she hates all food. I’m convinced.”

Furthermore, Ricki turned 18 around two years ago, and her mother celebrated the occasion at the time by taking her daughter to get inked. Emily expressed her happiness about the fact that Ricki has grown up now in an Instagram Story at the time. Emily even added her daughter’s picture, which was taken a long time ago.

Us Weekly stated that Ricki’s real name is Josephine Riddick Hendrick, and she was born following her father’s death. Emily was 19 years old when she found out that she was expecting a baby, and she is currently a mother of five more children, born after her marriage to Tyler Johnson.

Ricki Hendrick’s father died a long time ago: Airplane accident and more

A report by ESPN in 2014 stated that the incident happened on October 24, 2004. Ricky initially arrived at a private hangar in his father’s car, and the hangar had a fleet of aircraft inside. Notably, Ricky came to the hangar during the morning hours.

Ricky then went inside a Beechcraft Super King Air 200, where he was accompanied by around nine individuals. The airplane was on its way to Martinsville Speedway when it crashed into the Virginia-based Bull Mountain.

Newsweek stated that the airplane was owned by Hendrick Motorsports. The remaining people who lost their lives included the company’s president, John Hendrick, who was also Ricky’s uncle, alongside the general manager, Jeff Turner, and chief engine builder, Randy Dorton.

DuPont executive Joe Jackson was one of the victims, along with John’s daughters, Jennifer and Kimberly. There was also Tony Stewart’s helicopter pilot, Scott Lathram, followed by the pilots of the airplane, Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison.

Before his death, Ricky Hendrick was engaged to Emily Maynard, who opened up on how her fiancé’s death changed everything in her life, as she shared an Instagram post in October last year. It featured a black-and-white photo of Emily and Ricky, with the former expressing her grief by saying:

“I look at pictures and don’t even recognize that girl anymore, no matter how much I wish I could. In one hand I feel like I’ve changed so much and then in the other, that I’ve been paralyzed at age 18 forever. I have so many things I can’t wait to tell him.”

Around seven years after Ricky’s death, Emily Maynard appeared on The Bachelor, where Brad Womack proposed to her. Although Emily accepted it, the relationship did not last long and Maynard was later engaged for a brief period to Jef Holm after she participated in The Bachelorette in 2012.