Sara Bareilles is sharing an intensely personal chapter of her life in her new documentary, “Good Grief.”
The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival on Thursday, June 4, follows the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter as she creates her first album in seven years while processing several forms of loss and major life changes.
Bareilles Details Her IVF Journey
Among the most emotional moments is Bareilles’ candid discussion about her fertility journey and her hopes of becoming a parent, according to PEOPLE.
In the documentary, the 46-year-old singer opens up during a conversation with collaborators in the recording studio, revealing that she and her husband, Joe Tippett, have been trying to have a child for the past two years.
Speaking with a collaborator who had also experienced fertility challenges, Bareilles said, “I’m in the same boat. We’ve been trying for two years.”
She went on to reveal that she has undergone IVF treatments multiple times without success.
Bareilles became emotional while discussing what may come next for her and Tippett, explaining that they are now considering using an egg donor.
“But I think the next phase is egg donor,” she says in the documentary. “For some reason, I’m not making the appointment.”
The singer then shared the difficult emotions she has had to work through while facing that possibility.
“I really had to grieve that…that it won’t be mine,” Bareilles admits.
While acknowledging the sadness she felt, Bareilles explained that the experience has also changed the way she thinks about family, parenthood and love.
She said she has spent time “meditating around the size of love,” leading her to a broader understanding of how families are formed.
“The idea that love is just big enough to hold a lot of shapes and sizes and ways things come,” she says. “The idea that I could only love a child if it shows up in this one way.”
Bareilles Tied the Knot in 2025
The documentary arrives during a significant period in Bareilles’ personal life.
In October 2025, she announced that she and Tippett had married after years together.
“We did a big thing,” she wrote on Instagram alongside photos from their wedding celebration. “I will just say I love this man and I love the community who came to hold us up. I am feeling so lucky and so grateful.”
The couple first met in 2015 while working on the Broadway musical “Waitress.”
Two years later, they publicly confirmed their relationship and have remained together ever since.
Bareilles Has an Upcoming Album
The documentary also serves as a companion piece to Bareilles’ upcoming album, “Good Grief,” which is scheduled for release on Aug. 28.
The project marks her first studio album in seven years and draws heavily from her recent experiences and reflections.
Announcing the album, Bareilles described the songs as deeply personal.
“This whole collection of songs felt like transmissions rather than a deliberate attempt to make sense of the world,” she said in a press release. “My deepest hope is that Good Grief provides some kind of comfort or catharsis.”
By sharing her fertility struggles so openly, Bareilles is offering audiences an unfiltered look at a journey that many families experience privately, while also exploring how grief, hope and love can exist side by side.
