Jana Kramer is standing firm in her beliefs about vaccinating her children.
“I listened to a podcast episode about giving the baby a vax — what did you end up doing?” a fan asked Kramer, 42, in an Instagram Stories Q&A on Thursday, December 4.
Kramer responded, “The update I will give is we changed doctors’ offices to where it’s our choice and can ask as many questions and have the choice to do or not to do and not the … ‘if you don’t, then you’re not allowed to be in this office’ approach.”
Back in February, Kramer claimed on her “Whine Down” podcast that during a visit to her former doctor’s office, she “essentially got blamed” for her son having an ear infection because she had been “behind” on his vaccinations.
“I didn’t like how that felt. I got turned off by that comment, and so it didn’t make me want to go back to that office, because I’m like, ‘You just blamed me for my child having an ear infection.’ So like, I didn’t like that. I don’t even know why I’m crying, but like, it just made me feel like a bad mom or something,” she admitted.
Kramer shares daughter Jolie, 9, and son Jace, 7, with ex-husband Mike Caussin, as well as son Roman, 2, with husband Allan Russell.
The One Tree Hill alum added that she felt “overwhelmed” knowing that Roman “needs so many vaccinations,” but she also wasn’t sure if she trusted vaccinations yet.
Jana Kramer/Instagram
Kramer previously discussed vaccinations during a 2020 episode of her podcast, featuring special guests Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services as of 2025, and Dr. Abe Malkin, M.D., who is board-certified in family medicine and addiction medicine.
Kramer also spoke to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has taken both a pro- and anti-vaccine stance, during another podcast episode in 2020. The pair discussed the widely disputed theory that vaccinations cause autism.
“To vaccinate or not to vaccinate. It’s been something that has quite frankly kept me up at night,” Kramer wrote via Instagram at the time. “If I’m being super honest, I’ve done the most amount of research since I’ve had Jace, since I’ve always heard about autism and boys with the [measles, mumps and rubella vaccine]. The more research I’ve done, I’ve questioned myself and thought, ‘Omg, am I the reason Jolie had a speech delay because of her vaccines?’”
The “Whiskey” singer continued, “As you can see, I don’t know the answers, and I have just prayed that I am doin the right thing but I sure wish there was a definite answer one way or another because for every article I see it gets debunked by the other. Quite frankly it’s exhausting.”
Kramer added that “another issue is the fact that people can be so mean” no matter which side of the debate one chooses to be on.
“So please, in the comments, don’t hate on me for vaccinating, don’t hate on others who have different opinions. Please offer your knowledge, but don’t be mean if someone doesn’t agree. Can we just agree to disagree kindly and have healthy conversations?” she concluded.
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President Trump leans into a familiar political strategy of attacking immigrant communities as he intensifies racist comments about Minnesota’s Somali population and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. A Pentagon watchdog report finds Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth endangered U.S. troops by sharing classified strike plans over Signal, directly undercutting the White House’s claim that no harm was done. And a CDC advisory panel appointed by the Trump administration prepares to revisit long-standing vaccine recommendations, including whether to scale back protections for newborns and young children.
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p class=”readrate”>Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Andrew Sussman, Scott Hensley, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.
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p class=”readrate”>It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
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p class=”readrate” data-rr=”17″ data-pm-slice=”1 1 []”>We get engineering support from David Greenburg. And our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
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p class=”readrate”>Our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
Singer Ray J comes from a family filled with musicians and performers, including his father and his sister, Brandy.
Ray J released his debut single “Let It Go” in 1997, but his family’s history in the music industry dates back to at least the 1970s, when his father Willie Norwood joined The Composers. His mother, Sonja, has worked as the manager for both Ray J and Brandy since they began their own music careers.
Ray J has created his own family with estranged wife Princess Love, who he married in 2016. The pair welcomed daughter Melody in 2018 and son Epik in 2020. In May 2020, the pair announced they were separating, and have since rescinded and then re-filed for divorce three more times. They are currently still married.
In November 2025, the “One Wish” singer was arrested after he allegedly pulled a gun on his estranged wife during an argument on Thanksgiving Day.
Video footage from the livestream allegedly showed Ray J saying, “Y’all wanna drive drunk? Y’all wanna drive drunk? Drive drunk. Drive drunk, Princess,” before Love interjects, “Ray, you just pointed a gun–.”
“Drive drunk, princess. Go ahead,” Ray J also appeared to say. “You wanna take my kids? You and your drunk cousin? Cuz y’all drunk at the alcoholics? Take my kids then, go ahead. Who’s gonna drive? Tony, he’s been drinking too.”
Keep scrolling to learn more about Ray J’s relationships with his family, including Love and their two children.
Willie Norwood
Willie NorwoodParas Griffin/Getty Images for BMI
Ray J’s father Willie is a singer, coach and teacher. As shared via Kovocals, Willie joined the singing group The Composers in the 1970s. The band made the decision to move to Hollywood after opening for Chaka Khan & Rufus, and Willie lived there with his family until he and wife Sonja decided to move back to Mississippi.
Willie took the family back to California to serve as a minister of music and become a music coach. He put together Brandy’s first tour and released his own album, Bout It, in 2001.
Willie also appeared on Brandy and Ray J’s reality series, Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business. The series aired on VH1 for two seasons, from April 2010 to February 2011.
Sonja B. Norwood
Sonja NorwoodJonathan Leibson/Getty Images for WE tv
Sonja has worked as Brandy and Ray J’s manager throughout their music careers, and is also the CEO of the family’s management company, Norwood & Norwood. As shared on her website, Sonja cut her career at H&R block short to focus on her children’s musical pursuits. This allowed her to help Brandy and Ray J navigate music contracts, Brandy’s foray into music and beauty deals and running the Norwood Kids Foundation.
“Being Black, a woman, a mom, and coming into this industry in the `90s was not easy,” she says on her site. “When I’m teaching, it’s important for people to understand the practices of the entertainment industry. I appreciate all of the good and bad attitudes, the no’s and yes challenges and deceptions that came my way. They have made me the business person I am today. I have earned my way – fearless, confident, and passionate about who I am and how I can change things. I want up-and-coming mom managers and females especially to know that if they are willing to put in the work to not only master their craft but also to wholly understand who they are as a person, establish boundaries and keep God first – they can accomplish anything.”
Brandy Norwood
Brandy NorwoodDerek White/Getty Images
Brandy is Ray J’s older sister, known to audiences around the world as a singer and actress. She rose to fame after securing a role on the ABC series Thea, which aired from September 1983 to February 1984, but her breakthrough moment came with the release of her first self-titled album in September 1984.
Brandy led the cast of Moesha in 1996, and the series became a hit soon after its debut. Her acting career spawned several more roles, including in the 1997 movie Cinderella.
The release of her follow-up album Never Say Never in 1998 introduced Brandy to wider audiences after the single “The Boy is Mine” hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Brandy has continued to act and sing in the years that followed.
Sy’Rai Smith
Sy’Rai SmithBryan Bedder/Getty Images for Lifetime
Sy’Rai is the daughter of Brandy and producer Robert Smith. She made her debut as a singer on her mom’s 2020 record B7 and released her own song, “On My Own” in 2023. She is also the host of the “I Shouldn’t Have Said That” podcast.
Princess Love
Princess LoveUnique Nicole/Getty Images
Ray J and Princess Love married in August 2016, and have since welcomed two children together. The pair’s relationship has been tumultuous, and they have filed for divorce several times (in May 2020, September 2020, October 2021 and most recently in February 2024).
“After much reflection, discussion, and counseling, we have come to the difficult realization that our paths have diverged, and it is in the best interest of both of us to part ways,” Love wrote in a since-deleted post shared via Instagram in February 2024. “We want to reassure you that this decision was made thoughtfully and with mutual respect and consideration for each other’s well-being. While our relationship as spouses may be coming to an end, we remain committed to co-parenting our children and maintaining a positive and supportive family dynamic.”
Princess was a cast member on seasons 3 through 6 of Love & Hip Hop: Miami (the series aired from 2014 to 2019) and frequently documents her cooking on Instagram.
Ray J Familyesse Grant/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Ray J and Love welcomed their first child together on May 23, 2018. Soon after her birth, Ray J shared a video of himself with Melody with OK! Magazine, telling the outlet that he and Love were considering a move to London with their daughter.
“I’m here with the love of my life,” he said in the video. “I love you. I’ll always be there for you. You’ll never have to want for nothing, baby.”
He added of the potential move, “I like the people, the opportunities, and the values are a little different. I’ve been in Hollywood so long, I know what it comes with, I want my daughter to have a peaceful, happy life. I want to be consistent in being there for the baby. We’d love to move in the next year and a half.”
Epik Ray Norwood
Love and Ray J’s son Epik joined the family on December 30, 2019.
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As Tatiana Schlossberg underwent stem cell treatment for her terminal cancer battle, her siblings leapt into action to help.
“My sister had turned out to be a match and would donate her stem cells,” Tatiana, 35, wrote in a New Yorker essay published Saturday, November 22, referring to older sister Rose Schlossberg. “My brother [Jack Schlossberg] was a half-match, but he still asked every doctor if maybe a half-match was better, just in case.”
The Schlossberg siblings are the three children of Caroline Kennedy — the daughter of the late John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onaissis — and Edwin Schlossberg.
Tatiana discovered that she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2024 shortly after giving birth to her second child. (Tatiana and husband George Moran welcomed a son in 2022 and a daughter in 2024.)
After consulting her physicians, Tatiana learned that she had a rare mutation in her blood cells and was subsequently given a year to live.
“I could not be cured by a standard course of treatment. I would need a few months, at least, of chemotherapy, which would aim to reduce the number of blast cells in my bone marrow,” she explained in her “A Battle With My Blood”essay for TheNew Yorker. “Then, I would need a bone-marrow transplant, which could cure me. After the transplant, I would probably need more chemotherapy, on a regular basis, to try to prevent the cancer from returning.”
Tatiana also underwent a couple of clinical trials, in addition to the stem cell treatment using Rose’s donation.
“My sister held her arms straight for hours as the doctors drained blood from one, scooped out and froze her stem cells, and pumped the blood back in the other,” Tatiana recalled of Rose’s procedure. “The cells smelled like canned tomato soup. When the transfusion began, I sneezed twelve times and threw up.”
Prince William, Jack and Tatiana Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy in 2022.ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
She added, “Then I waited — for my blood counts to recover, for my sister’s cells to heal and change my body. We wondered if I would get her banana allergy or her personality. My hair started to fall out and I wore scarves to cover my head, remembering, vainly, each time I tied one on, how great my hair used to be.”
While Tatiana was hospitalized, with Moran by her side, her other relatives helped babysit their children.
“My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half,” Tatiana wrote. “They have held my hand unflinchingly while I have suffered, trying not to show their pain and sadness in order to protect me from it. This has been a great gift, even though I feel their pain every day.”
She continued, “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
After Tatiana’s essay was published, her family has been in her corner. Jack, 32, even reposted links to the article via his Instagram, while cousin Maria Shriver also offered her support.
“Tatiana is a beautiful writer, journalist, wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. This piece is about what she has been going through for the last year and a half,” Shriver, 70, wrote via her Instagram, specifically responding to the New Yorker story. “It’s an ode to all the doctors and nurses who toil on the frontlines of humanity. It’s so many things, but best to read it yourself, and be blown away by one woman’s life story. And let it be a reminder to be grateful for the life you are living today, right now, this very minute.”
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Nathalie Kelley is opening up about her experience working with Ryan Phillippe and his son, Deacon Phillippe, on the set of their show Motorheads.
“[Deacon is] the most charismatic, polite, thoughtful young man I have ever met,” Kelley, 40 exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, November 10, referring to Phillippe’s son, whom he shares with ex-wife Reese Witherspoon, adding that he “gives me hope for the entire gender of men.
“I’m like, wow! If this is what the new generation of men are coming out, looking like, sounding like, acting like, then I feel more at ease about the future of our species,” she continued, while promoting the upcoming short film Yachapa, which highlights Quechua weavers and alpaquero families in Peru, and her partnership with alpaca fiber apparel PAKA. “Honestly, what an incredible young man.”
She also recalled how overjoyed Ryan was to let Deacon spread his wings for the Amazon Prime drama.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Fanatics
“I think it was [Deacon’s] first major acting role, and super sweet to see the father-son dynamic and how proud Ryan was,” Kelley said. “Ryan was trying to navigate how much to interfere and how much to let him be in his own process. I learned a lot from having my own kids on the show, from observing Ryan as a father and just realizing, like, how beautiful that the cycle of life is.”
Kelley explained that her time on the Motorheads set also “taught me a lot about motherhood,” describing the experience as “a really transformative process for me.”
“Because at the end of it, I decided that I actually did want to have children, and before that, I hadn’t wanted to. So it’s really beautiful how art and life mimic and imitate and feed one another,” she added. “I’ll always be grateful to Motorheads for giving me that kind of awakening and realization.
Kelley, who was born in Peru before moving to Australia, has already had a full circle moment in her partnership with PAKA, fulfilling a two-decade promise to herself.
“I grew up in Australia, which is [on] the other side of the world from Peru, and when I came home for the first time after moving there very young, I saw so much injustice and so many wrongs that I wanted to right when it came to my indigenous community. And I made a promise when I was 18 years old, that one day I was going to do something to right these wrongs and to make up for the fact that I had left,” she said. “I’d never forgotten that promise.”
For Kelley, accomplishing that goal was “my sweet surprise full circle moment.” And she’s not done yet.
The “Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift” star has “found a purpose” after reconnecting with her Peruvian roots.
“It feels like it’s just the beginning,” she told Us. “I realize that what they are looking for, beyond help, is allyship, and what Kris [Cody] is doing with PAKA, and what I can do as a storyteller with influence, with global influence, is be their allies and stand by and stand beside them.”
Courtesy of PAKA
Kelley said they are shining a light on “a supply chain that needs a lot of justice and reorienting, so that we can make sure that the people behind the alpaca fiber are being honored, as well as the animals and the ecosystems.”
She also shared that it’s important the local Quechua weavers are “being properly compensated and integrated into the supply chain in a meaningful and just way.”
“This is just the first step. Kris and I have a lifelong mission there,” Kelley teased.
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Stefon Diggs is preparing for dad mode as pregnant girlfriend Cardi B’s due date draws closer.
“It’s supposed to happen real soon,” Diggs, 31, told Extra at the 2025 CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday, November 3, teasing when the couple’s little one is due.
The New England Patriots receiver will be new to parenthood, so he asked the reporter and fans to “wish us both luck” on the journey.
Diggs also revealed the sex of his and Cardi’s baby during the New York City event, telling People, “It’s a boy.”
When asked what he’s most excited about once the baby arrives, Diggs said having a son is “enough” for him.
“I can’t wait to make him do push-ups and sit-ups and run around,” the NFL player added.
Cardi, 33, previously hinted at wanting a baby boy with Diggs on the song “On My Back” from her album Am I the Drama, which dropped in September.
“I be staring in your eyes through the whole day / I swear to God, I hope our kids have your whole face,” the lyrics read. “Take these clothes off and throw ’em on the floor / I told my girl I’m ’bout to give this man a boy / Throw me on my back.”
While Cardi initially denied she was dating Diggs, the pair continued to fuel romance rumors. In June, the Grammy winner confirmed her relationship with Diggs via social media by sharing a cozy photo with him on a yacht.
Three months later, Cardi announced her pregnancy with baby No. 4, her first with Diggs. “I am having a baby with my boyfriend,” she told Gayle King during an appearance on CBS Mornings in September. “I’m excited.”
Weeks before Cardi confirmed her pregnancy, Diggs responded to a lawsuit filed by Aileen Lopera in December 2024, who claimed that he is the father of her 7-month-old baby girl.
Us Weekly confirmed that Diggs said in a July 17 filing that he was certain he was not the father of Lopera’s daughter, Charliee, who was born on April 2. He requested “genetic testing to determine” whether he is the father and asked the court for joint legal and physical custody of the child if the test proves paternity.
Amid the drama, Diggs has been focused on football, and Cardi has been his No. 1 supporter.
The musician was spotted at the Patriots’ home game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, November 2. Cardi sat next to Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft at Gillette Stadium wearing a burgundy coat that barely covered her growing baby bump.
Cardi later shared a series of photos from the game, which the Patriots won 24-23, via social media, including a snap of Diggs bending down to caress her belly.
