How Tyler Cameron’s late mom ‘put Tate in my life’ and led to his Dancing with the Stars baby reveal

Pink confetti fills the “Dancing with the Stars” ballroom as Tyler Cameron and Tate Madden learn they’re having a girl on Dedication Night. (Disney/Eric McCandless)Tyler Cameron and his fiancée Tate Madden discovered they were having a girl as pink confetti drifted down onto the Dancing with the Stars dance floor on Tuesday's Dedication Night episode. They surprised the audience with a gender reveal. In fact, only minutes earlier, Cameron and Madden announced they were expecting for the first time on the show, so it was a double surprise for viewers.

A lot was going on after the contemporary routine, and that's before you factor in who the dance was for. Cameron dedicated it to his mother, Andrea, and in his rehearsal package he said, "I think my mom put Tate in my life for sure." When you look a bit deeper, you'll see that wasn't just a metaphor.

Tyler Cameron and fiancée Tate Madden reveal her baby bump during his Dedication Night dance on "Dancing with the Stars."

Andrea Cameron died of a brain aneurysm on February 29, 2020, about six months after her son finished second on The Bachelorette, according to the Palm Beach Post. His announcement was simple. He shared, "Today heaven gained an angel."

Tyler Cameron holds the letter to his late mother, Andrea, aloft as Sharna Burgess dances the role of his mom on "Dancing with the Stars."

Grief led Tyler Cameron home. The 27-year-old left New York for Jupiter, Florida, and he told Entertainment Tonight that he'd always wanted to remodel his mother's house as a surprise for her. He said, "I still owe it to my little brothers, just to remodel it for them now and make sure they have a place they can always call home. So, that's my goal right now."

That instinct became Going Home with Tyler Cameron, a renovation series where he met Tate Madden after she signed on to be a photographer for the Airbnb the crew built. Their first date came in September 2023, on her 30th birthday, People reported. He proposed on Little Palm Island on August 15, 2026, and they shared a video of the moment on Instagram.

The baby followed fast. Madden told People, "The night we got back from getting engaged, I took the test." When she saw it was positive, she went and told Cameron, "You're not going to believe this."

Sharna Burgess, dancing as Tyler Cameron's late mother, comforts him as he holds his letter to her during "Supermarket Flowers."

Cameron carefully chose the song he danced to on Dedication Night. Ed Sheeran wrote "Supermarket Flowers" about his grandmother, from his mother's point of view, and told Zane Lowe, "That's the most special song on the record for me." It has since become one of the most-played funeral songs in the United Kingdom, according to Nylon.

What an emotionally loaded moment that must have been for Cameron. He chose a song about losing a mother for the night he announced he's becoming a parent, and he told producers that weddings get to him because he'll never dance with his mom at his own wedding, Today reported.

Sharna Burgess danced the role of Tyler Cameron's mom Andrea, according to E! News, and the letter Cameron read in voiceover spoke to his mother directly. He said, "All the things that made you special, I found in her."

Tyler Cameron kisses fiancée Tate Madden after announcing their pregnancy on "Dancing with the Stars."

Tate Madden walked onto the dance floor partway through the performance, and the two cradled her bump as a sweet way of sharing the news with the audience. Alfonso Ribeiro then excitedly announced that the couple hadn't learned the baby's sex, and he revealed it by releasing confetti in the color pink. Soon pink confetti fell all over the room. Cameron marveled aloud about his excitement about being a girl dad, and judge Derek Hough excitedly advised him, "Get ready for your heart to explode wide open". Hough and his wife Hayley Erbert share a baby girl named Everley who was born in December 2025.

Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, and Bruno Tonioli score Tyler Cameron's Dedication Night dance with straight 8s.

The judges gave the dance routine straight 8s for a 32 out of 40, and although that might seem high, they were tied for the lowest score of the night. With all that joy and excitement, they didn't seem to worry at all about their scores, though.

Alfonso Ribeiro, Sharna Burgess, Tate Madden, and Tyler Cameron after the live gender reveal on "Dancing with the Stars."

Andrea's well remembered far beyond the dance floor, too. Tyler and his brothers started the Andrea C. Cameron Foundation, which awards scholarships to high school graduates heading to college or technical school.

Thank you for reading. For more on Dancing with the Stars and the stories behind the dances, I invite you to follow me on Yahoo.