“Luby Francis Bell IV coming this October!” That was Buddy Bell’s Instagram caption on April 4, 2026, under a sonogram tucked into a basket of flowers — the announcement that Whitney Way Thore’s best friend since high school was about to become a dad. Seven months later, Season 14 premiered, Whitney spent the whole hour chasing a baby of her own, and Buddy Bell never got a single moment.
Whitney’s baby dream was the episode. Buddy’s baby was due the same month. The two stories never met on screen.
“Luby Francis Bell IV Coming This October”
Buddy married Courtney Bell in October 2023, announcing it himself: “I’m a husband now! Meet my wife, Courtney Bell!!” The April 2026 reveal came in three photos — the sonogram in flowers, a cake with blue icing, and Buddy and Courtney smiling with family. Courtney wrote on her own page, “Baby Boy Bell 🩵🥹 due October 2026.”
October has now come and gone, and as of this writing, no public birth announcement has surfaced. But the due date alone reframes the premiere: while Whitney told Ashley about a pregnancy test from early October, her oldest friend was counting down to a baby of his own.
The Friendship Season 13 Left in Shambles
Buddy is not just a face in the background. He has been beside Whitney since high school — through the dance videos, the breakups, and the addiction battle he spoke about openly on the show. But Season 13 showed the distance growing between them, and Whitney herself called the friend group “shambles.”
The new era is about who travels with Whitney to Charlotte and who stays behind — and the friend who has been there the longest did not make the hour. Fans have spent the run-up arguing the supporting cast deserves storylines of their own, and Buddy’s baby is the most obvious one TLC has.
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Look at the five biggest moments of the premiere: the Charlotte apartment tour, the speakerphone scene, Jake’s flat “I would prefer not,” the number Whitney finally said out loud, and the chemical pregnancy she kept secret for a month. Every one of them belongs to Whitney, Jake, or Ashley Baynes. Buddy’s name never surfaced in any of them.
Ashley got the tour, the confession, and the advice — “just do the next thing that feels right.” She earned every second. But the friend from high school — the one who knows Whitney longer than anyone on that couch — got nothing. Not a scene, not a mention, not even a seat at the table.
Two Baby Stories, Moving in Opposite Directions
In early October, Whitney did an IUI with donor sperm and got a positive test for the first time. “I was only pregnant, like, a few days,” she told Ashley. “It was chemical.” The same month, Buddy’s son was due. One best friend was losing a pregnancy she had kept secret; the other was about to hold his first child.
That contrast is the richest scene Season 14 has not shot yet — Whitney meeting her best friend’s baby while still carrying her own loss. Buddy is not the only old friend missing: Todd Beasley, the man who danced Whitney into fame, has no confirmed Season 14 appearance either.
Next Tuesday Is Buddy’s Next Door
Episode 2, “He’s My Friend That’s a Boy,” airs Tuesday, November 17 — and the listing says Jake crashes Whitney’s halftime show before everyone grills him at Glenn’s cookout. A family cookout is exactly where a best friend belongs. If Buddy walks into that yard with a baby in his arms, the whole season changes.
If he does not show up, the silence becomes the story. When Glenn fires up the grill and the family lines up to grill Jake, should Buddy Bell be at that table — the new dad, the oldest friend, the one person who has known Whitney since high school? Or has the Charlotte era already moved on without him? Team Bring Buddy Back, or Team Let the New Era Start Fresh?
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