Why did James and Myka Stauffer give away Huxley? Here's what the couple from An Update on our Family said

James and Myka Stauffer are a couple from Ohio who used to run the successful YouTube channel, The Stauffer Life. They became involved in a controversy in 2020 when they dissolved the adoption of their child Huxley, who was diagnosed with autism.

James and Myka Stauffer are the subjects of HBO's new docu-series An Update on Our Family, released on January 15, 2025. It explores the details of Huxley's adoption and the eventual decision of his adoptive parents to let him go. The Stauffers claimed that they had not anticipated how much special care Huxley would require and were unable to provide it at the time.

The official synopsis of the series as per HBO is:

An Update on Our Family explores the world of family vlogging, a social media phenomenon in which parents post a steady stream of lifestyle videos for loyal subscribers. Through the lens of the massively popular Stauffer family — and the sudden online disappearance of their adopted son — the docuseries raises questions about what motivates parents to expose their home lives to the world, provoking a salient conversation about privacy on the internet and the unregulated industry of monetizing one’s family.

The docuseries has been directed by Rachel Mason and produced by Jasmine Luoma and Julee Metz. Rachel Mason, Rachael Knudsen, Max Heckman, Chad Mumm, Mark W. Olsen, Jennifer O'Connell, and Lizzie Fox are the executive producers.

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What made James and Myka Stauffer give up their son?

James and Myka Stauffer are vloggers from Columbus, Ohio, known for their YouTube channel, The Stauffer Life. They have four children, with Myka also having a daughter from a previous relationship. In 2016, they adopted a boy from China named Huxley, who has special needs, including autism, an in-utero stroke, and sensory processing disorder. They shared his adoption journey on their channel.

After the couple's fourth child was born in 2019, viewers noticed an absence of content concerning Huxley. They also noticed his missing car seat and any comments concerning him being deleted, which led to speculations that Huxley was no longer with the Stauffers.

Upon receiving severe backlash from viewers, James and Myka Stauffer released their infamous and now deleted video titled An Update on Our Family in May 2020. They explained in the video that they had decided to find a new home for 4-year-old Huxley as they were unable to completely meet his special needs and were unprepared for the extent of his autism.

Myka had posted an apology on Instagram back in 2020 and the couple have been MIA from any social media for the last five years. HBO's three-part docuseries sheds some light on the incident through accounts from followers of their channel.

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Where are the Stauffers and Huxley now?

In an official statement by their lawyers, it was revealed that James and Myka Stauffer had chosen an appropriate home for Huxley where his needs would be taken care of rather than placing him in the foster system. Huxley has since been renamed and lives with his new parents, one of whom has medical professional training.

James and Myka Stauffer have deleted their YouTube channel and Myka's last post on Instagram is from 2020 about Huxley. The couple has been completely absent from social media except for James' YouTube channel Stauffer Garage, where he flips, cleans, and details cars and has over a million subscribers.

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Watch more details about the Stauffers on An Update on Our Family, streaming on HBO and Max.