The Cleveland Browns family is grieving the devastating loss of offensive lineman Hakeem Adeniji’s stillborn son. In a recent emotional video shared on social media, Adeniji expressed the heartache of losing his child, Semiu Zade Adeniji.
“This is going to be very tough,” he said. “We’ll never forget him. We love him. He’s going to live on in our hearts forever. He gave us so much hope.” Adeniji and his wife, Kayla, had an ultrasound just a week before their baby’s due date after she couldn’t feel a heartbeat. “They put it on her stomach, and we didn’t hear anything. It was the worst moment of my life,” he recalled.
Kayla, who conceived Semiu through in vitro fertilization, has asked for prayers for their son, calling him “the most perfect, beautiful boy I’ve ever seen” and acknowledging that their lives will never be the same after the loss. In his grief, Adeniji has been journaling and shared some of his raw emotions: “There’s been anger, sadness, and emptiness. The fact that he is gone has set in, and nothing can change that,” he wrote. “I’ll never get to see him grow up, and he’ll never get to read his journal I wrote for him. I miss him, and I’ll miss him every day for the rest of my life.”
Despite the overwhelming sorrow, Adeniji is trying to move forward and has requested that people treat him the same as before. “I still want to be a dad more than anything else in the world, and (baby Semiu) gave me that even though it was short-lived,” he said. “When and if I ever get that opportunity again, I’ll never take a day for granted. I love my boy, and he will live through us.”
