Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have one of the longest-standing marriages in showbusiness and will celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary in October.
The country music stars married in 1996 and their successful union isn't lost on them. While Tim admits there isn't a specific secret to maintaining their relationship, he did reveal in a new interview that the couple promised each other they wouldn't ignore any "problems" that arose in their marriage.
"I don't know if there's a key. We always say we're 27 years coming up, it's like 96 in show business," he told Entertainment Tonight Canada. "It's almost like dog years."
He continued: "We just made a commitment early on, when we first decided we were getting married and having kids, that we wouldn't just walk out the door when problems arose."
The couple now share three daughters, Gracie, 26, Maggie, 25, and Audrey, 21, and it's not just Tim and Faith who are "brutally honest" with one another – but the whole family too.
"Faith and I were going to raise our girls to be strong, independent and fierce and have their own minds and have their own opinions," he said. "And sometimes I go, 'Dang, do we want them to be that independent and strong?' But yeah, we're so proud of them."
Tim and Faith didn't opt for a conventional showbiz wedding. Instead, they invited friends and family members to Tim's aunt's house in Rayville, LA, under the ruse that they would play in a charity softball game, so they were more than surprised when the couple emerged from a tour bus wearing wedding attire.
"We got off the bus and all my family was there and they were prepared to play softball and we get out in wedding clothes and got married under a locust tree in my aunt's backyard," he explained on LIVE! with Regis and Kelly in 2011. When he was asked if his guests were angry about the surprise, Tim responded: "My sisters were a little upset because they wanted to dress up."
Their engagement was equally unconventional but very memorable. On their 25th wedding anniversary, Tim opened up about how he popped the question in a trailer at a country music festival – but he had an agonizing wait for Faith's response.
"We had dated for a while. I actually asked her to marry me quite a few times, but she kept saying no. She said, 'I'm not gonna get involved with another country singer. It's just not gonna work out," he recalled. "We were somewhere playing this big outdoor festival and they had these trailer houses set up," Tim continued.
"I'm getting ready to go on stage and I had this sort of case that had this big mirror in it. "She's standing there and we're talking, and I said, 'Look, let's get married.' And she says, 'You're asking me to marry you at a country music festival in a trailer house?' And I said, 'Well, it's pretty apropos if you think about it.' She goes, 'Are you serious?' I said, 'Well, yeah, I'm serious' – and then they called me and I had to go to stage."
He added: "I went to stage and did the show and then I came off the stage and went back into my dressing room and Faith wasn't there. But I looked at the mirror – in lipstick it said, 'Yes. I'm gonna be your wife.' We still have that mirror, and it was the best day of my life, that's for sure."
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