Cole Swindell Reveals Why He Once Believed He Might Never Get Married: ‘I Didn’t Know If It Was In The Cards’

Cole Swindell is happily married to his wife, Courtney, and has his first baby on the way, but there was once a time when he thought he might never get to settle down with a family.

In a candid conversation with Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen on Today’s Country Radio, the country star opened up about the ways his past shaped his outlook on relationships and how he’s come to understand that timing, growth, and finding the right person can change everything.

How Divorce Impacted His View On Relationships

According to CMT, Cole Swindell was just 11 years old when his parents, Carol Rainey and William Swindell, divorced. Years later, in December 2023, he gave fans a glimpse into what that experience was like through his emotional song “3 Feet Tall.” Looking back on his childhood, Swindell now recognizes that going through something like that at such a young age definitely had a lasting impact on how he viewed relationships for a long time.

“I think I just never wanted to really hurt anybody or get hurt, and that was a big step. But they say, ‘The right person,’ and they kept saying that. And I’m like, man, ‘I’m thirty…I don’t know if I’m going to know.’ They were right. But I think a lot of that,” he acknowledged.

In those 10 years between feeling defeated over never finding “the one” and then tying the knot with Courtney, Cole Swindell experienced a lot of growth, which he says was necessary for him to finally feel ready to settle down.

“I mean, it’s timing too. I mean, I would not have been… I needed time to grow and I still do. You know what I mean? It’s just I wouldn’t have been ready. I was so focused on my career and so just trying to get to where I was going to even have time for anything like that,” he admitted. “And just you meet somebody and then you realize why it didn’t work out with everybody else and also a lot of that was I wasn’t ready and it’s just to be in this stage, I didn’t know if it was in the cards.”

Feeling Grateful For The Journey

Ever since saying “I do,” Swindell admits his life has been on an upward trajectory as he’s learned to balance a happy and healthy personal life with his thriving music career.

“They say life comes at you fast and [the] past few years have been like the good stuff, man. This is the stuff that I feel like I’ve been waiting on and I feel like the people that close to me that have known me for years, you can just tell they’re excited that I’m in this stage because I think they were probably like, ‘You probably need to grow up a little. You need to settle down. You’re going to miss out on a lot of stuff.’ And it’s just to finally be here, but I wouldn’t do anything different,” he said.

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Now that he’s on the other side of all that waiting, Cole Swindell is taking it all in and feeling incredibly grateful for the chapter he’s in. Plus, the timing couldn’t have been more right to release his fifth studio album, Spanish Moss, as it contains stories and emotions that perfectly capture his current stage of life and the moments that led him to this point.

“I might not have ended up right here. It’s a crazy feeling, but I am. I feel super blessed and somebody said the other day, ‘You’ll always remember this album when it came out around what a special season of life.’ So I’ve only had song babies until now so now this is going to be special.”

A Lot To Look Forward To In 2025

Cole Swindell and the former NBA dancer and the 2017 Miss Teen North Carolina tied the knot on June 12, 2024 in an intimate wedding ceremony set in Sonoma County, California, at Château de Ninis. Then in March of 2025, the lovebirds announced that they are expecting their first child, a baby boy. Their caption revealed that “Baby Swindell” will be coming sometime this year.

The ”She Had Me At Heads Carolina” singer will continue to celebrate the recent release of his new album throughout his 2025 headlining Happy Hour Sad Tour. The highly anticipated trek will launch on September 4 in Toledo, OH and continue through October 26 with stops across Georgia, Colorado, Washington, Florida and more.