They’ve defied the odds and are more in love than ever.
On October 18th, Tim McGraw was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he sat down for a lengthy interview with Esquire following his induction, where he talked about Taylor Swift, fatherhood, and of course, his 30-year marriage to his wife and fellow country star, Faith Hill .
They’re a power couple in the industry, one of the very few to have lasted three decades, and they celebrated their 30-year wedding anniversary. During an interview with Katie Neal for an episode of Katie & Company last year, Tim shared that he only saw a picture of Faith and knew she was the one:
“I remember the very first time I saw a picture of Faith, I fell in love instantly. I think she was on ‘Billboard Magazine’ or something.
I was walking through my management office, and I had one or two singles out off my first album that hadn’t really done much. And I was in the process of recording my second album, and I walked by and saw the photo of her. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I need to find that girl.’”
And in honor of their three-decades married, which they celebrated on October 6th, McGraw took to Instagram to share some insight into their marriage, which started with a surprise wedding at the home of Tim’s aunt in Rayville, Louisiana. They had all their family and friends there, though they thought they were attending a charity softball game and concert.
I can only imagine their surprise when they discovered they were really attending a wedding, as Faith and Tim walked off of their tour bus and said their vows under a tree while barefoot.
It’s honestly an adorable story, and they first met in person at a Country Radio Seminar showcase in 1994, though they were both in relationships with other people at the time. Two years later, Hill joined Tim on his Spontaneous Combustion tour, and the rest, as they say, is history.
To have navigated a seemingly healthy and loving marriage for this long in the entertainment industry is nothing short of impressive, and Tim’s words about that day and how much Faith means to him are just beautiful:
“30 years, today. 30 years of our marriage. That day, October 6, 1996, under an old locust tree (I think) in my Aunt’s backyard in Rayville, Louisiana, I stood there and watched my future walk towards me with the sweetest man I’ve ever known, her father Ted.
In front of our closest family and friends, I was bound to the most beautiful soul. A lady that was glowing in my eyes, expanding my heart, and giving me all the love she had. I was and still am bewildered by her capacity to love, forgive, nurture and be full of joy and laughter. She is a gift to the world for sure, however, for us, we get Her, all of her. And I (and my girls) know who is ours, completely.
It’s difficult to describe what she means, she is the center of gravity to my life and our girls lives and anyone who knows Audrey Faith McGraw. I love you baby. You are my best friend. My lover. My wife. My shelter in any and every storm. And the sunrise afterwards. Many more sunrises and sunsets. Many more beautiful memories to come. I am a fortunate man.”
McGraw told Esquire that sometimes even they can’t believe that they’ve last so long in Hollywood, joking that for two artists, it’s more like “100 years”:
“We always say, especially two artists, it’s like 100 years in Hollywood years.”
Fair enough… 30 years is impressive enough for a normal couple, so the fact that they’ve navigated marriage through the entertainment industry is certainly something to celebrate.
In terms of advice, McGraw kept it pretty simple, saying that they’ve kept their commitments to each other in a world where “people are so easy to walk away from troubled or bad times.” He says they’ve had their fair shares of disagreements and hard times, of course, but they continue to choose each other even in those tough seasons:
“Just a commitment that you want it to work. People are so easy to walk away from troubled times or bad times, or times where you don’t get along.
But going into a marriage and being in a marriage for a long time, you start to realize that, yeah, there are gonna be times you don’t like each other. There are times you don’t get along… but that’s not a reason to walk out the door.”
McGraw says they made a commitment early on in that [leaving wasn’t going to be “our first response to any kind of fight,” which has helped them stay true to the promises they made to each other on their wedding day:
“We made a commitment early on in our lives that [leaving] wasn’t going to be our first response to any kind of fight or any kind of disagreement. Because the more you do that, that starts opening the door for that choice. It lessens the commitment, and it lessens the pride and respect that you have in your marriage.”
Of course, like any other couple, each of them have changed over time, but they have managed to grow together and love each version of each other, which is what he credits their success to:
“You change as you grow older. And you change individually as you grow older, and you change as a couple as you grow older in time spent together. And so the beauty, I think, in a long marriage, is you get the chance to fall in love with a new person every so often. Because people change.”
The couple shares three daughters together, Gracie, Maggie McGraw and Audrey, and they seemed to have built a beautiful life together and a marriage that will hopefully last a lifetime.