Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s Relationship: A Timeline

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Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's Relationship: A Timeline

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are one of the country music's most famous couples, but they've definitely had their ups and downs. “People thought, 'Well, two celebrities who are in the same business, they won’t last,'" Yearwood exclusively told Us Weekly in 2018. “I’m invested in this family, this is what I want for myself and no offense to anything else in my past, but I get it, I get it now and this is what I want. So we just earn it. Day by day.” The following year, Brooks said that he's continuously learning more about his wife. “I think how she inspires me is she thinks differently than me. And so it forces you out of just what you think you know, into what don’t you know, and to look over in there,” he exclusively told Us in 2019. "We’re kind of in that stage where we have discussions that are intense, a little more than usual." Yearwood chimed in, “I think what he’s saying is that he listens to me and I’m usually right.” Scroll through the gallery below for a timeline of their relationship:

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First Meeting

Although they met in 1988, the pair were not single at the time. Yearwood was married to Christopher Latham from 1987 to 1991.

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Doting Dad

Brooks was married to Sandy Mahl from 1986 to 2001. Together, they had three children: Taylor Mayne Pearl, born in 1992, August Anna, born in 1994, and Allie Colleen Brooks, born in 1996.

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Friends Only

"I had been married 13 months when I met her. When someone said, ‘What’d you think when I met her?’ I said, ‘I felt like I just met my wife,’ which is weird, right?" Brooks said ahead of his A&E documentary in November 2019. However, they were both married at that time.

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A Blossoming Friendship

In 1985, Yearwood began interning for MTM Records while in college and recorded background vocals for artists. Three years later, one of the artists she worked with was Brooks. At the time, he promised her that if he was successful, he'd help her sign her own recording contract.

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Big Break

In 1991, he introduced her to his producer and her career began growing. She sang on his second album, No Fences, and signed a contract. She opened for Brooks that year and her breakout hit, "She's in Love With the Boy," dropped in March 1991.

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An Item

Yearwood was married to Bobby Reynolds from 1994 to 1999. Meanwhile, Brooks separated from Mahl in 1999; they officially divorced in 2001. He and Yearwood then began a relationship.

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A Big Surprise

Despite his preference for privacy, Brooks popped the question on stage in May 2005 as he was being honored at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California. "Garth proposed to me and I’m freaking out onstage in front of 7,000 people. But I did say yes," Yearwood told Us exclusively about the proposal years later. "I was very surprised that’s what happened that night."

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I Do

Brooks and Yearwood married on December 10, 2005.

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Do Good

The pair have been inseparable since their marriage and love mixing work and home life. In October 2019, they worked together with Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, for Habitat and Humanity. "That tool belt, that hard hat, everything. She is gorgeous anyway — they call her the nail gun diva — but when she’s in her full sweat and everything and swinging that hammer, yes, she is more than sexy," he told Us.

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Stuck Together

The couple chose to use the coronavirus pandemic quarantine to strengthen their bond. “We decided to use quarantine as a time to face everything, ‘cause now you can’t leave, you can’t walk away,” Brooks said in a July 2020 press conference. “This is probably, you know, the blessing and the curse. This has probably been the most we’ve ever gone through as a couple, but what’s on the other side is so great especially when you are with the right one.”

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Duet Time

In February 2021, the couple released a cover of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "Shallow."

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Still In Love

Nearly 15 years after they tied the knot, Yearwood gushed about what makes her husband a great partner. "At the end of the day, even when I’m mad at him, [Garth] listens," the "How Do I Live" singer told Us. "Even when I think he’s not listening to me, he is. And he’s kind. He’s very generous and he’s very thoughtful."

She added that Brooks still makes an effort to be a gentleman both on and off stage. "He does call me 'Miss Yearwood' at home. And I’m like, ‘Dude, like, we’ve been together for a long time. You can call me Trisha," Yearwood continued. "It’ll just be, like, ‘Miss Yearwood’ or ‘the queen.' And I never asked him to call me the queen. I never asked him to bow. I allow him to, but I don’t ask him. I don’t make him do that."

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'Too Much' Touring

While celebrating the end of the U.S. Garth Brooks Stadium Tour with Yearwood in August 2022, Brooks hinted that it was time for a break. "I don't think we'll ever do a stadium tour again, ever. It's just too much on the crew," he told Entertainment Tonight. "These guys haven't been home in six months. ... I just want to be wherever that woman [Trisha] is, and I'll be happy."

Yearwood, for her part, called the end of the run "bittersweet," adding, "The last show is always the special one. This is something that, even though some of us will work together again, it'll never be like this exact moment."

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A Very Special Birthday

Yearwood spent the days before her 58th birthday with Brooks in Ireland, where the duo performed a series of shows in Dublin. "Ireland, it was a dream of a trip!" the "Every Girl in This Town" singer wrote via Instagram. "Thank you for taking us all in like family!! xo 💚 #GARTHinIRELAND." The "Unanswered Prayers" crooner, for his part, added: "I’m not from here, but you make me feel like I so belong here! I LOVE YOU, IRELAND 🇮🇪 !!!!! love, g."

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Hosting Hunk

Yearwood was by her husband’s side as he cohosted the ACM Awards for the first time in May 2023 alongside Dolly Parton.

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A 'Blessing and a Curse'

“I was telling somebody the other day, I feel so helpless because there's nothing I can't do without her,” Brooks exclusively told Us in August 2023. “There's nothing I can't do with her and there's nothing I can do without her.”

He joked: “It's a blessing and a curse that you feel so free and independent when she's there and you're so dependent when she's not there.” Brooks confessed, “I don't think she feels this way at all, but I know I do.”