Thomas Rhett is so grateful to be married to his wife, Lauren Akins. Rhett and Akins married on October 12, 2012, although Rhett is more in love with Akins than ever, he admits.
“I love the term ‘outkicked my coverage,'” Rhett says. “I just like to look at it as like, what a blessing, to be honest with you. Like a gift that I did not deserve. Someone that I have literally looked at and been like, ‘Golly, you are so beautiful,’ since I was like nine, ‘Someone as joyful as you and as all the things as you would land with me …’
“Grateful. Shocking,” he continues. “The fact that I celebrated 12 years of marriage with that person really is just such a gift and such a blessing.”
Not that it’s all been smooth sailing. Rhett recalls a time early in their marriage, when things were anything but easy for the couple.
“We were becoming famous at arguably the hardest moment in our personal lives,” Rhett tells Us Weekly. “Adopting [Willa Gray] and getting pregnant at the same time while having to be in Uganda for a year with me traveling back and forth was so challenging. I’d go to Uganda and be husband and dad, and then go to America and be like, ‘Okay, shows and music.’ I was internally imploding, and so was Lauren. We’d both come to these breaking points [feeling like] something has to give. It was not a fun time in our marriage.”
The father of four admits it might have been easier to call it quits, if not for vowing from the beginning that for them, they would stay together no matter what.
View this post on Instagram
“Giving up was not an option,” Rhett says. “That thought has never crossed my mind or Lauren’s. With me being a fixer and Lauren being stubborn, we made it work. The easiest thing to do is quit. But when you don’t and you keep grinding it out, you’ll inevitably become stronger.”
Akins also remembers some incredibly difficult times in their marriage, when she was really frustrated with their relationship, after both adopting Willa Gray and welcoming their second daughter, Ada James.
“I began touring with my husband, and I was running myself ragged, just chasing him all over the place, trying to make it feel like it used to,” Akins recounts on the I Am Second video series.. “His life went on, and I felt like mine stopped. I felt like we weren’t doing it together anymore. There was a lot of miscommunication, there was a lot of resentment I was holding onto, I think even through the adoption and after. I just hit a breaking point where I didn’t like him, and I resented him.”
“I remember looking at him in the closet, after we had just screamed at each other,” she continues. “I said, ‘I hate you. I hate you, and I feel alone, and I feel lost, and I hate your career, and I hate the pressure that it puts on us, and I hate that we brought two little girls in this.’ I just dropped a bomb on him. He’s like, ‘Do you want me to quit? What do you want me to do? Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.’”
Fortunately, they worked it out and are now stronger than ever. Rhett’s latest album, About A Woman, is in tribute to Akins.
“She’s one of the most interesting and smartest people I know,” Rhett says of Akins. “She graduated from [the University of] Tennessee with a nursing degree. She was always at the top of our class. In high school, she tutored me in math. She’s genuinely the most authentic person I’ve ever met.”
Find all of Rhett’s music and upcoming shows at ThomasRhett.com.