Country stars Tim McGraw and his wife Faith Hill have one of the most enduring marriages in music, and now he’s opening up about how they make it last.
“The beauty, I think, in a long marriage is you get the chance to fall in love with a new person every so often, because people change,” McGraw said in an interview with Esquire. The video interview is titled, “What I’ve Learned.”
“You’ll hear a lot of times, people go through a divorce or a separation, and they go, ‘You changed.’ Well, we all change. What you have to be committed to is, ‘Yeah, we’re changing, but we’re falling in love with the person we’re turning into every time we change.'”
The couple is facing a lot of change right now as they move into the empty nester phase and are turning 60. According to Taste of Country, they hit the 30-year milestone in their marriage in 2026.
Tim McGraw Acknowledged That Long-Term Marriages Have ‘Dangerous’ Points
Marriage isn’t easy, including as the years add up, McGraw acknowledged. “Points of change, I think, are the most dangerous parts of a long marriage,” he said.
McGraw indicated that communication is really important. “We’re stepping into a new phase of life,” the singer reflects, “and sometimes…that requires sitting down and talking about it a little bit, saying, ‘Hey, we need to check in and see where we’re at,'” McGraw added in the video.
“You gotta have that foundation, and you gotta always go back to it,” he shared. “The longer you wait to go back to it, the further away it gets, and you can get to a point where it’s unreachable.”
On the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary, McGraw shared a lengthy tribute to his wife.
“That day, October 6, 1996, under an old locust tree (I think) in my Aunt’s backyard in Rayville, Louisiana, I stood there and watched my future walk towards me with the sweetest man I’ve ever known, her father Ted,” McGraw shared on Instagram.
“In front of our closest family and friends, I was bound to the most beautiful soul. A lady that was glowing in my eyes, expanding my heart, and giving me all the love she had. I was and still am bewildered by her capacity to love, forgive, nurture and be full of joy and laughter. She is a gift to the world for sure, however, for us, we get Her, all of her. And I (and my girls) know who is ours, completely. It’s difficult to describe what she means, she is the center of gravity to my life and our girls lives and anyone who knows Audrey Faith McGraw.”
He added:
“I love you baby
You are my best friend
My lover
My wife
My shelter in any and every storm
And the sunrise afterwards
Many more sunrises and sunsets
Many more beautiful memories to come
I am a fortunate man.”
Tim McGraw Also Spoke About How He & His Wife Became ‘Empty Nesters’
According to People, McGraw and Hill are the parents of three daughters: “Gracie arrived in 1997, followed by Maggie in 1998 and Audrey in 2001.”
However, that means that their youngest is daughter is now in her mid-20s. And that’s resulted in a big change for Hill and McGraw that many parents will recognize: All of the kids being gone from the house.
“Your whole life’s planned around, ‘Alright, we’re up at 6, we’re taking the kids to school, they get out at 3’ — that whole cacophony of stuff that happens when you have kids. When all that goes, there’s a quietness that’s sort of a, ‘What do I do with my mornings?'” he said to Esquire. “…That lasted about six months.”
McGraw has praised his daughters. “It’s inspiring to me to watch them go out on their own and do the things they do,” McGraw told People in 2021. “We’ve raised three strong, independent, strong-minded young women. And what I’m most grateful for is just how normal our kids are and how grounded they are and how much they respect themselves and other people.”
Tim McGraw Gets Candid About How He Makes 30-Year Marriage to Faith Hill Last