Regan Cole-Graham, a Google executive and wife of veteran sports writer Matthew Graham, died on Saturday, January 31, after she was struck by a car while riding her bike with her family. She was 7 months pregnant with the couple’s third child, a girl.
Cole-Graham, who was 36, was rushed to the hospital where she later died. Doctors also delivered the unborn baby, who spent two days in the NICU before dying on Monday, February 2.
The couple married in 2021 and shared sons Dale, 3, and Theo, 19 months.
Los Angeles police told the city’s local ABC affiliate that the driver stayed at the scene and that it appeared to be a “tragic accident.”
“Regan was the most wonderful human being that I ever met,” friend Ashley Saglie told ABC7. “She’s the best mother, and she loved her kids and the world is…It’s not fair.”
Graham, currently a writer for Sports Illustrated, is known as one of the founders of For The Win, the USA Today site that covers sports from a fan-interest perspective. His family has set up a GoFundMe page to “pay for funeral expenses and help Matt with the kids’ future.” As of Wednesday, February 4, it has raised more than $215,000.
The page gained steam online when journalist Chris Cillizza shared it via X with his 556,000 followers on Monday.
“I wanted to share a tragedy with you all. And ask you for help,” Cillizza, 49, wrote in the post. ”On Saturday night, my college friend Matt Graham, his wife Regan Cole-Graham and their two young boys were riding bikes in Los Angeles. She was struck by a car and killed. She was also 7 months pregnant with their third child — a little girl.”
Cillizza added, “I understand that not everyone is in a financial position to donate. But, if you are, please give what you can to my friend who has had his entire life change in the space of the last 2 days.”
The GoFundMe remembers Cole-Graham as a “loving and devoted wife, a fierce and joyful mother, a hilarious and loyal sister, and a beautiful, fiery daughter.”
“She loved life. She loved playing with her kids. She loved her husband dearly,” Chrystal Caban, another friend, told ABC7 of Cole-Graham. “She loved her sisters with her whole heart, and she loved her parents more than anything. We’re going to miss her every day.”
A third friend, Mary Creel, added, “Everything I know about being a mom is from her. I can’t imagine doing this without her, but I’m gonna make sure that my son remembers mommy Regan. He called her mommy Regan.”
Cole-Graham’s social media accounts are set to private, but her husband’s Instagram page shows a joint post from New Year’s Eve 2025 that was a carousel of family photos from the beach.
“Goodbye 2025 💜,” Cole-Graham wrote in the caption, alongside a lead image that showed the family of four, all smiling with the sun setting behind the ocean in the background. Other photos showed the kids playing in the sand and running through the water.
