Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have a wonderful marriage spanning 17 years and they've been fortunate enough to help raise his three daughters, Allie, 26, August 29, and Taylor, 30, too.
While they don't have any children together, the country music couple are proud parents to his children from his first marriage to Sandy Mahl.
They're now grown up and leading their own lives, and Trisha could not be more proud - even if it wasn't the easiest path to begin with.
© InstagramWhile promoting his 2019 A&E documentary, Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On, he got candid about raising his children after the divorce.
"I was living with three strange women that I did not know. They were eight, six, and four," Garth, 61, confessed.
SEE: Inside Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's jaw-dropping 300-acre mega-mansion - see photos
Fortunately, Trisha was onboard to help him navigate his parenting journey. "I was about to get a crash course in females…and my best friend showed up," he added.
© Instagram/Allie BrooksIt was quite the shift for Trisha who hadn't been a mother before. "I had a dog before I married Garth but no children of my own. I never even really babysat!" she revealed to People magazine in 2021.
SEE: Reba McEntire's former $5m Nashville home is now a five-star resort – see inside
Although Sandy has always been a brilliant and supportive mom to her children, Trisha, 58, would accept the role of "bonus mom" gleefully.
© Getty Images"When you don’t have children, you have the luxury of being selfish, because it’s just about you. You don’t have to think about somebody else first," she explained to SheKnows. "And as an artist, it’s easy to be really egocentric because your job is to be thinking about your career, what you have to do next, how you’re going to take yourself to the next level.
"So to get out of that space and to realize that it doesn’t matter what I have going on, it was a real lesson for me."
She was thankful that they accepted her into their lives too. "They let me learn my way and allowed me to be that third parent in their lives. I didn’t know how much children brought into your life until I got a chance to be a part of their lives."
Trisha relished the opportunity to become a parent and confessed: "It was a gift that I received from Garth and the girls of having them in a life that I didn’t even know I was missing, you know, and I can’t imagine my life without them."
© Getty ImagesRather than use the term 'stepmom', Trisha has a preferred name. "When I think stepmom, I think Cinderella, you know, so I always prefer bonus mom," she explained. "Jada Pinkett Smith told me years ago, she’s like, ‘you’re a bonus mom, don’t call yourself something else.’ So I’ve taken that and run with it."
The women all have their own lives now, Taylor and August are incredibly private and few photos of them have been made public.
However, Garth's youngest, Allie Colleen (as she is known) is following in his footsteps and carving out a career in music. "They got the right amount of their mom in them, the right amount of me in them, and the right amount of Trisha’s influence in them as well," Garth told FOX News. "So I think everything happens for a reason at a time."
Read more HELLO! US stories here
