On September 8, 2026, Elizabeth Johnston Bolden became a mom again. “Coleman Brice Bolden Jr. 09/08/2026. Our family is complete, with this happy handsome bundle of joy,” she wrote on Instagram. Seven years earlier, she and Brice Bolden were just two kids who lived three houses apart.
2019: The Boy Three Houses Down
Liz and Brice crossed paths in their Georgia neighborhood — they lived just three houses apart — and started dating in 2019. That spring they went to prom together, and Brice became a fixture at the Johnston family home in Forsyth. Liz has achondroplasia; Brice is of average height.
The Breakup That Almost Ended It
By Season 12, Brice was thinking seriously about marriage and asked Liz’s sisters to help him pick out a ring. But the proposal never came. Living together had exposed cracks neither wanted to name. In a Season 14 preview, Liz finally said it: the relationship had started to feel like two roommates sharing a home, not a romance. She wanted what Trent and Amber had — not comfortable, not mediocre. Even then, she called Brice a good person. No betrayal, no explosion. Just a spark gone quiet.
November 3, 2023: Leighton Rebuilds Them
The answer came in the form of a baby. After reconciling, Liz and Brice announced their first pregnancy in September 2023, and Leighton Drew Bolden arrived on November 3, 2023 — five pounds, ten ounces, and, like her dad, of average height. By May 2024, Liz said their relationship had improved a lot, and they moved into a home of their own.
May 25 to November 8, 2025: A Beach Proposal, an Empty Chair
During Season 16, Brice asked Trent for permission to marry Liz and got the family’s blessing. On May 25, 2025, in Pensacola, Florida, Brice got down on one knee. “Ring a ding ding, it’s finally happening,” Liz wrote that day. But the road to the altar ran through grief: Liz’s grandmother, Nana, died in October 2025, weeks before the ceremony, and the couple left an empty chair in her memory. On November 8, 2025, at the Johnston family home, Liz walked down the aisle to Kina Grannis’s version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” with two-year-old Leighton as flower girl. Liz called it the best day of her life — the day they could “officially call ourselves a family of three, and be a team.”
“I Am a Wreck”: The Drive to Coleman — and the Scare After
On March 10, 2026, Liz and Brice announced their second pregnancy, Leighton holding the ultrasound pictures. Liz admitted this pregnancy felt harder on her body, and that this baby would likely be their last. As a little person, Liz has always known her babies must arrive by scheduled C-section under general anesthesia. On the drive to the hospital, all she could manage was three words: “I am a wreck.” Brice, meanwhile, had faced a question no partner should ever have to answer: if Liz stopped breathing, what should doctors choose? Coleman Brice Johnston Bolden arrived on September 8, 2026. But four weeks later, Coleman was back in the hospital. By mid-October, Liz posted that Coleman was home, a month old, smiling again. The couple has not said whether Coleman has achondroplasia; according to reports, family members have confirmed he is a little person, like his mom.
YOU MAY LIKEEverything We Know About 7 Little Johnstons Season 18 — Wedding Bells, New Homes, and One Big Question MarkSeason 18 premieres Tuesday, November 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TLC — and it will replay this whole pregnancy on screen, though real life knows the ending. So, fans who watched all seven years: when Season 18 replays the pregnancy that brought Coleman home, will you watch to relive the joy — or should the cameras let Liz and Brice raise their kids in peace? Pick a side, and make your case below.
