The Truth About Maren Morris And Ryan Hurd's Marriage

While the year 2020 may have thrown many of us for a curve, country power couple Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd have had a lot of practice with weathering life's twists and turns — and their marriage is stronger for it. They met in Nashville in 2013, when they were paired during a songwriting session for what eventually became Tim McGraw's "Last Turn Home." The two musicians kept finding their way back to each other as they continued to collaborate. "We would write and then after we'd go over to a bar in midtown and have a couple beers," Hurd told People. "That's when we started making a real connection, beyond a creative partnership."

With those good bones in place, their connection flourished, leading Hurd to propose to Morris at his family's lake house in Michigan in 2017. "It was July 3, so there were fireworks all around the lake and I told her I bought all those fireworks just for her," he told Rare Country. While it sounds like a fairy tale in the making, their growing success as artists added a layer of stress culminating in a lot of time spent apart after their Nashville nuptials in March 2018. "It was a tough summer," Morris revealed in an interview with Esquire. "But we have grown so much closer because we had to make some hard decisions and have some tough talks about what this future looks like and how we can make this better." The two credit therapy for helping them through this difficult period.

In 2019, the couple's hard work paid off, with Maren Morris releasing her second major label studio album, Girl, which is up for Album of the Year at the 2020 ACMs. Morris, who is also nominated for Female Artist of the Year, then found herself in the unusual position of being pregnant during the pandemic, describing the experience of giving birth in March as "weird and eerie" on The Bobby Bones Show (via Fox News). 

Thankfully Hurd, who in addition to his own music has written number one songs for country stars such as Luke Bryan, was there to support Morris as she needed an emergency C-section after 30 hours of labor. The two welcomed Hayes Andrew Hurd, named in honor of Ryan's late brother Andrew (via Us Weekly). 

Now as parents, they continue to grow and look out for each other. When Morris was mom-shamed for posting a photo of her relaxing with Hayes on a pool float while holding a drink, Hurd clapped back at the haters: "I'd just like to say, my wife usually doesn't need me to defend her, but she's a great mom," he wrote on Twitter. "My kid was not unsafe on a float in 1 feet of water being held by an adult with 5 people watching so she could get a picture."