Courtesy of Lauren Akins/Instagram
Who Is Lauren Akins? Meet Country Star Thomas Rhett’s Wife and Why She ‘Resented’ Him
Fans want to know more about country star Thomas Rhett‘s wife, Lauren Akins, after she revealed in a short film that she “resented” the singer while welcoming back-to-back children.
Where Is Lauren Akins From?
Thomas’s wife was born and raised outside Nashville, Tennessee. Lauren and Thomas attended the same high school and church while growing up.
What Does Lauren Akins Do for a Living?
She is a registered nurse, and received her nursing degree from the University of Tennessee.
Lauren is a published author, releasing her memoir Live in Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes, in 2020. In the New York Times bestseller, she shared how she found her identity after Thomas’ career took off by helping orphans in Uganda through charity work.
In addition to writing, Lauren hosts a parenting podcast, “Live in Love With Lauren Akins.”
When Did Lauren Akins and Thomas Rhett Get Married?
The pair have known each other since elementary school and briefly dated in high school. They reconnected as adults in 2011 and got engaged after six months of dating. The couple married in an outdoor ceremony on October 12, 2012, in Nashville.
Both Lauren and Thomas were 22 years old at the time they tied the knot. “Everybody was telling us not to … but we just fell in love at a young age,” he told People in 2016.
Lauren Akins Starred in One of Thomas Rhett’s Music Videos
The ACM winner penned his 2015 smash “Die a Happy Man” in honor of his wife. “I wrote the song for her and about her,” he told People in 2016. “I really did just wake up one day and was like, ‘I have yet to write a song about her.'”
Lauren starred in the music video for the song, which showed the couple having plenty of romantic moments in a tropical paradise setting. The tune went on to win Single of the Year at the 2016 CMAs, where Thomas told the audience, “My lovely wife, she was the full inspiration for the song,” while accepting the award.
Lauren Akins and Thomas Rhett Share Four Children
The couple began the adoption process for a baby girl from Uganda in 2016, whom Lauren connected with while working with the charity 147 Million Orphans.
“I had always wanted to adopt,” she told Us Weekly in 2019. “My mom is actually adopted. I am a product of an adopted family … When I saw her … I was very drawn to her. I just tell everyone she was always my baby. It just took us a little bit longer to find each other.”
Due to the country’s complicated adoption laws, Lauren had to foster the baby, whom they named Willa, in the African country over the course of a year. She made nearly a dozen trips, staying for weeks and months at a time.
Amid the adoption process Lauren became pregnant. She was in her third trimester when the couple got approval to bring Willa home to the United States. Her parents flew to Uganda to collect the little girl and reunited her with Lauren and Thomas. The couple revealed her adoption to fans in a May 12, 2017, Instagram post.
Three months later, Lauren gave birth to their first child, daughter Ada, on August 12, 2017, in Nashville.
“She weighs 7 pounds 3 ounces and is so stinking cute I just can’t take it! Thomas Rhett and I are so in love with her. And Willa Gray is so excited to finally have a baby sister,” the new mom announced on Instagram.
The couple welcomed a third daughter, Lennon Love, on February 10, 2020. A fourth daughter followed quickly, as Lauren gave birth to Lillie Carolina on November 15, 2021.
“7.5 pounds of pure joy. Lauren, you are my hero. Watching a child being born is legit a miracle. 4 under 6 here we go!” Thomas shared with fans in an Instagram birth announcement.
Lauren Akins ‘Resented’ Thomas After Welcoming Their First Two Children
In a July 2024 short film titled This Wasn’t the Plan, Lauren revealed how traveling to Uganda to spend time with Willa while pregnant took a toll on her, as well as her marriage to Thomas.
“A lot of the adoption process really fell on me because I was the one who was able to travel and be with her, and foster to adopt her for those 13 months,” she recalled. “There were so many roadblocks, and I became pregnant. I was getting sick and throwing up, like, 50-something times a day. The whole time I was missing my husband,” as Thomas was on tour at the time.
“It kind of felt like we went zero to two pretty quick as parents. I began touring with my husband and I was running myself ragged, just chasing him all over the place, trying to make it feel like it used to,” she said. “His life went on and I felt like mine stopped. I felt like we weren’t doing it together anymore.”
“I just hit a breaking point where I didn’t like him and I resented him,” Lauren explained in the film, as she told her husband how she felt “alone” while he focused on his career. The couple attended “intensive counseling” to air out their issues.
“We shared everything, and some of it was really hard to hear for each other,” Lauren revealed. “So, we really just did a restart, and that was when I feel like our marriage took off.”
