A virtual acceptance! Miranda Lambert won Entertainer of the Year at the 2022 ACM Awards on Monday, March 7, but the singer couldn’t actually accept the honor in person.
Lambert, 38, who also won for Video of the Year alongside Elle King, explained in a video message that she missed her first Academy of Country Music Awards ever due to a prior commitment overseas. Lambert’s appearance at the C2C Festival in Europe this week prevented her from being at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a really, really long time. I actually never thought it would happen,” the performer gushed during her acceptance speech. “This one goes out to all the girls out there. We did it!”
The “If I Was a Cowboy” songstress, who was also nominated for Female Artist of the Year and Album of the Year, said she previously appeared at every ACM Awards show for 17 years. In 2019, Lambert celebrated her time on the red carpet with husband Brendan McLoughlin, shortly after their surprising nuptials.
The couple, who met on the set of Good Morning America in November 2018, got married the following January after a whirlwind romance.
“In honor of Valentine’s day I wanted to share some news. I met the love of my life. And we got hitched!” the “Hell on Heels” performer announced via Instagram in February 2019. “My heart is full. Thank you Brendan Mcloughlin for loving me for … Me.”
One year after their appearance at the 2019 ACM Awards, the singer opened up about how the couple’s relationship took a surprising turn while they quarantined together during the coronavirus crisis.
“If newlyweds can survive a pandemic then I think we’re good, you know?” the Texas native joked during an interview on New York’s Country 94.7 in June 2020. “It’s a good test. The first month I had a lot of fun. Well, not fun, but I was like, ‘OK, we’re off. We’ll probably be back on the road in a couple of months.’ … There’s stuff to do, it’s just the adjusting of not knowing when I’m going to work again. It’s uneasy.”
The country star later noted that spending so much time with the former cop, 30, improved their marriage.
“We didn’t date very long before we got married,” Lambert explained on SiriusXM’s The Storme Warren Show in February 2021. “And so we sort of got to just really, really, really get to know each other. ‘Cause it was just us two with no distraction, at my farm outside of Nashville. And so I was really thankful for it because it made us really strong.”
She added: “A lot of couples, especially a lot of my friends don’t really see their significant other because we’re different directions all the time. But with everything that happened last year, I think everybody was forced to sort of reconnect with themselves and with people that they really love and that are close to them.”
Ahead of the the singer’s virtual appearance at the 57th annual ACM Awards, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that the Grammy winner and her husband have “recently started trying” to expand their family. “She and Brendan decided after their third wedding anniversary, they would start trying,” the insider revealed. “Miranda is thrilled and Brendan has always wanted to [have kids with her].”
McLoughlin, for his part, welcomed a son with ex Kaihla Rettinger in November 2018, days after he met Lambert. Meanwhile, Lambert was married to Blake Shelton from 2011 to 2015.
