Trisha Yearwood on secret to her lasting marriage with Garth Brooks

Trisha Yearwood is opening up about what she’s learned in nearly two decades of marriage to Garth Brooks.

Speaking at In Her Own Words: An Evening with Trisha Yearwood at The Paley Center for Media in New York City on Saturday, the country icon, 61, reflected on how her life shifted after marrying Brooks, 63, in 2005.

“When I married Garth and I moved to Oklahoma, I stopped,” she said. “I wasn’t touring 200 days a year anymore. I was a bonus mom to three children, and I was trying to make a marriage work, because I had learned that marriages don’t work if you’re never together.”

She added, “That’s kind of important. You have to be together. I made a conscious effort to be there... to go to soccer games and cook dinner.”

Yearwood and Brooks first met in 1987 while recording demos as unsigned artists in Nashville. 

After Brooks’ divorce from his first wife, Sandy Mahl, in 2001, he began dating Yearwood, and the two married in December 2005. Brooks shares three daughters, including Taylor, August and Allie with Mahl.

Since then, the pair have shared both a personal and professional partnership, embarking on a three-year world tour and co-writing the song For the Last Time on Yearwood’s 2019 album Let’s Be Frank.

Yearwood, who has also become a bestselling cookbook author, released her latest album Christmastime on Friday. The record features classic holiday tracks including Christmastime Is Here, You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.