Pressing pause! Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins want a fifth baby — but not anytime soon.
“Lauren’s whole dream [is that] she wanted to have five kids,” the country singer, 32, said during the Monday, April 4, “Making Space With Hoda Kotb” podcast episode. “Since the day we got married, she’s [been] like, ‘I want to have five,’ and I’m sitting there going, ‘That’s fine, you know, that would be great.'”
The songwriter went on to say that because they have to be intentional about making time for Willa, 6, Ada, 4, Lennon, 2, and Lillie, 4 months, the pair are going to “take a four-year deep breath” before expanding.
The Georgia native and Akins, also 32, wed in October 2012 in Tennessee, adopting their eldest child from Uganda five years later.
“When I saw her, I don’t know, I was very drawn to her,” the Live in Love author exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2018. “I just tell everyone she was always my baby. It just took us a little bit longer to find each other. I called Thomas one of the first nights I met her in Uganda and told him about her. Without hesitation, he said, ‘Bring her home. She is ours. We are going to make this happen.’”
Ada was born five months after her big sister’s adoption, followed by Lennon and Lillie in February 2020 and November 2021, respectively.
Rhett gushed about the “beautiful” adoption process on Monday before telling Hoda Kotb that Ada has questions “all the time” that he doesn’t know how to answer.
“She talks to Lauren like, ‘When can we get to see my friends in Uganda?’” Rhett explained. “And then Ada James will be like, ‘When can I go see our friends in Uganda?’ And Willa Gray will be like, ‘Well, they’re not your friends, they’re my friends.’ … How do I keep this innocence alive as long as I possibly can?”
Kotb, 57, and her ex-fiancé, Joel Schiffman, adopted two daughters — Haley, 5, and Hope, 2 — and the former couple “make jokes about” their different appearances.
“Kids are funny about everything,” the Today show cohost explained. “Like even Haley will hold my skin up to her skin. ‘Am I darker than you, Mama? What about Hopey? Is she darker than me?’ … You want to preserve where they’re from so they remember. Because I feel like [if] you don’t know your identity, how are you going to live your life? You’ve got to figure out a way to navigate.”
