Carrie Underwood’s Best Friend, Band Leader Welcome Baby Girl
Congratulations are in order for Carrie Underwood's bass player, Mark Childers, and his wife Ivey, who have welcomed a baby girl.
Country Aircheck reports that Childers -- who is also Underwood's band director -- and Ivey welcomed Leona Ivey Childers on Feb. 17. Ivey Childers is also the owner of the IveyCake bakery.
Ironically, Ivey was the baker who got the call to make a cake for the celebration when Underwood won American Idol, but the two didn't actually meet until she began dating Childers several years later, according to CMT. They have since become very close friends, and Childers designed the impressive cupcake tower that was featured at Underwood's wedding to Nashville Predator Mike Fisher in 2010.
The couple returned the favor by hosting a baby shower for Childers at a trendy restaurant called Citizen in Nashville in December 2015, featuring cocktails, karaoke and a photo booth with comical masks and props, as well as one of IveyCake's cupcake towers that featured a topper bearing the baby's name.
“We’ve been friends for gosh, seven or eight years now,” Childers tells CMT of Underwood. “We got married a year apart, we’re having babies a year apart. We’ve kind of experienced all the milestones in life together. She’s most definitely my very best friend.”
Underwood has also been an example of motherhood to her friend.
“I watch her, and I’m amazed at what she can handle and how she’s not rattled,” Childers said. “She calms me. … Watching her embrace motherhood the way she has makes me a relaxed person. We’re a good balance for each other in the sense that she’s very calm and collected.”
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