Inside Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s Long Road To Love

In 1987, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were both unknown singers trying to make it big in Nashville. As a side hustle, they would each pick up jobs singing demos for cash as many up-and-coming artists did at the time. One day, Brooks and Yearwood found themselves at songwriter Kent Blazy’s home studio where Yearwood says they immediately “hit it off.”

The timing, however, was not ideal as they were both married to other people.

“It’s strange because I felt that feeling like when you just meet your wife, but I’d been married [to Sandy Mahl] for 13 months,” Brooks later recalled to Ellen DeGeneres.

The pair struck up a friendship and Brooks promised Yearwood that she could open for him if he ever got a record deal.

Two years later, Brooks signed a deal with Capitol Records and followed through with his promise to Yearwood.

In addition to touring together, the pair often collaborated in the studio. In 1991, Yearwood released the song “Like We Never Had a Broken Heart,” which was co-written by Brooks. They released their first major collaboration, “In Another’s Eyes,” six years later. Yearwood and Brooks also sang background vocals on many of each other’s albums.

While their careers flourished, quite a bit was also happening in Brooks and Yearwood’s personal lives. Yearwood’s first marriage ended in 1991. She re-married in 1994 and was divorced again by 1999.

Brooks and Sandy went on to have three daughters, Taylor Mayne Pearl (born in 1992), August Anna (born in 1994) and Allie Colleen (born in 1996). They became estranged and filed for divorce in the fall of 2000. By 2001, Brooks’ divorced was finalized.

“Being married, it’s got to be right. This is who you went to college with, and you were married in front of God and your family and everything,” Brooks told DeGeneres. “So you keep hacking, and you work and you work and you work. And then comes that time where you’re looking at the rest of your life going, ‘How do you want to live it?’”

That’s when the stars aligned. For the first time in 14 years, Brooks and Yearwood were single at the same time.

“This was somebody I always enjoyed being around. And we had a lot more in common than I ever dreamed we did. And so we started seeing each other after the divorce,” he said. “We’d known each other music-wise, but we got to see each other as people. And I’ve got to tell you, if you like her and don’t know her, you’ll love her. If you love her and don’t know her, you’ll worship her. She’s the real deal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Brooks asked Yearwood to marry him in May 2005 while on stage at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California.

The couple tied the knot on December 10, 2005 during a private ceremony at their Oklahoma home.

Brooks and Yearwood have managed to make their marriage last. The secret, according to Yearwood, is being together.

“When we got married we made a very conscious effort to be together and not apart,” she explained to Country Living. “We’ve both been married before and it doesn’t work when you’re not together. That’s kind of been the benchmark of our marriage that we try really hard not to be apart.”