Thomas Rhett’s Wife Keeps Him Humble, Rules Keep Them Happy

Time spent apart puts pressure on any marriage, and that pressure is amplified when crowds of adoring fans — and thousands of beautiful women — are cheering you on every night. Thomas Rhett knows this, so he and his wife put extra precautions in place before he started to become famous.

“The rules and precedents I’ve set for myself out on the road really are the biggest things that kind of hold our marriage together,” the “Crash and Burn” singer tells Taste of Country. “No girls on the bus, no girls touch me during meet and greet and all that kind of stuff.” Previously he told Taste of Country that he prefers not to get physical with girls in his music videos, going as far as to use a body double in the “It Goes Like This” video.

“As strict as rules as they are, those kind of things have to be enforced for me to keep my guard up and for her to trust that what (I say is) going on on the road is really what’s going on on the road.”

Rhett says his marriage to Lauren is strong. High-profile breakups in country music in recent years didn’t cause the couple to reassess their own union and agreements. He says it made them feel even stronger.

“It’s so crazy looking at it from the outside in thinking that everything is all roses and peachy,” he says, careful not to specify any one singer or couple in particular. “If you hang out with me and Lauren you know our relationship. You know that we fight like cats and dogs, but you know that we’ve fought like cats and dogs since we were like 10 years old.”

Lauren keeps Rhett humble, the singer says. They’re dedicated to remaining honest with one another, and well aware how often the lifestyle breaks a marriage. His own father, Rhett Akins, divorced his mother when he was nine, something the young singer attributes to his being gone a lot. Lauren travels with Thomas when she can, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the trappings of fame. He's seen it get to others — all of a sudden they feel invincible.

“I’ve even come home a lot of the time and talked about what I did on the road and what songs I’m gonna cut and then I realized I haven’t even asked my wife how her day was,” he says. “So I think this business can be very consuming for some people. But thank goodness that my wife is there to call me out every single time, so my head shrinks a little bit.”

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