They Met in the Middle! All About Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd's Marriage Made in Country Music Heaven
November 10, 2021 – 10:28 AM – 0 Comments
By Kai Green Parade @kaisiobhan
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(Matt Winkelmeyer/ACMA2019/Getty Images for ACM)
Ever since she released her first single, "My Church" in 2016—and ultimately won a Grammy for it—native Texan Maren Morris has always done things a little differently. Known primarily as a country music artist, the genre-hopping singer-songwriter made big waves with her debut album Hero, and then made bigger waves with her crossover megahits "The Middle" (with EDM producer Zedd) and "The Bones;" the latter sat on top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for 19 weeks, breaking the record for longest leading No. 1 ever by a solo female with no additional artists.
The love song, like many others, reminded Morris of her husband, Ryan Hurd. (The video even features lush shots of Morris and Hurd on vacation in Maui, Hawaii.) "I was really feeling so solidified in my relationship with my then-fiancé," she said about composing the song, which hit #1 on the Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart as well. "It was just like we all were super solid with our partners, and so writing this song about the bones of a house—even if a hurricane comes, a storm, the wolves come, the structure of the house is still standing. The foundation is still there, so you can rip it down to the studs and the foundation of this relationship isn't going anywhere."
After riding high on the success of "The Bones," Morris has kept going. She launched a side gig as part of the country supergroup The Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby and she's even landed a modeling contract with Wilhemina Models. She's also up for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2021 Country Music Awards, airing Wednesday, Nov. 10. And for the first time, her husband is nominated with her—in the 2021 CMAs' Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year categories for their first duet, "Chasing After You." They first performed the song at the Academy of Country Music Awards in April 2021. "It's very cool to share those moments with her and it makes it even more special," Hurd says. "We're both incredibly thankful for the year we've had."
So how did this musical couple meet (was it, perhaps, in "The Middle?"), when did they marry, what's their family life like and what makes them tick? Keep reading to find out everything we know about Maren Morris' marriage to husband Ryan Hurd.
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Who is Maren Morris married to?
While he previously studied sociology at Belmont University, Hurd has been writing songs for others and performing for at least 10 years. He's written #1 tunes for such big-name artists as Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan and Lady A.
Hurd was finally signed to his own contract as an artist with Sony Music Nashville in 2017; that journey has been a bit of a surprise, he says. "Going from being a staff writer in Nashville and having a couple of hits under my belt, you think that'll translate into either people giving a s–t about your career or you as an artist, or into actually being a good artist," Hurd revealed in an October 2021 interview. "And the fact is, songwriting and being a recording artist, they have very little to do with each other. In fact, being an artist in this world is not very musical. It's a lot of getting on an airplane, just stuff that you never imagined having to do with it."
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Is Maren Morris' guitarist her husband?
For a long time, Hurd was known only as a guitarist or a songwriter. He also made a cameo in the music video for Morris' 2018 song, "Rich." (In turn, she was in his "To a T" video in 2019.)
Success in his own right, according to Hurd, came as soon as he allowed himself to let go of the business side of things. "Once you let go of that involvement, for me it was a game changer," he says. "It made me a better writer and a better artist. It made me happier… I think there was a time when I was a very difficult artist because you just want it so bad, and you feel like you're the only one that cares. But in reality, this thing takes a while and you're not going to be as good of a manager as you are a songwriter."
Hurd's debut studio LP, Pelago, finally came out in October 2021. Just after midnight that day, he tweeted about the project, "It's been a journey, I hope you love it as much as I do."
My debut full length album Pelago is out now. It's been a journey, I hope you love it as much as I do. Love to each and every one of you and thank you for being a part of this moment with me #PELAGO https://t.co/CWEGhsJbbC pic.twitter.com/KNKvnn1LwS
— Ryan Hurd (@RyanHurd) October 15, 2021
Morris was quick to support him, tweeting, "I cannot keep the tears in my eyes today. It's so f***ing hard as a new artist to put a full album out in an EP and "dRoP tHe SinGlE" obsessed world and he did it. I am the proudest wife and co-writer that exists on this planet today. So, PASS IT ON."
I cannot keep the tears in my eyes today. It's so fucking hard as a new artist to put a full album out in an EP and "dRoP tHe SinGlE" obsessed world and he did it. I am the proudest wife and co-writer that exists on this planet today. So, PASS IT ON. ✨✨ https://t.co/v80L3FmqKd
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) October 15, 2021
How old is Maren Morris?
Morris is 31 years old; she was born on April 10, 1990. Hurd turned 35 on Nov. 2, 2021, a day that Morris commemorated by tweeting, "Happy 35th trip around the sun, darling."
Happy 35th trip around the sun, darling. @RyanHurd ✨ pic.twitter.com/dNm0sGEoCt
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) November 2, 2021
How did Maren Morris meet her husband, Ryan Hurd?
"[Ryan's] always been a creative collaborator in my life, that's how we met," Morris said in a 2019 interview. "We were paired together six years ago to write a song." Music brought the two together, totally by chance. "We were both at different publishing companies, and our publishers' job is to fill our calendars up, so they just randomly put us together on a write one day," Morris recalls. That fateful day in 2013, they started work on the Tim McGraw song "Last Turn Home."
The two would unwind after work in various bars, and at first, they were just friends. "I think that's why I gravitated towards him in the beginning, because he's such a dork and he makes me laugh and is, obviously, very good-looking!" Morris said. However, as time went on, it was clear that there was something more between them. "We'd go over to a bar in midtown and have a couple beers. That's when we started making a real connection, beyond a creative partnership," Hurd recalls.
The two finally started dating in December 2015. "We had been friends for only a couple of years, but there was always this writing chemistry in the room, and eventually, the timing of it was undeniable. We had such a foundation built off writing so many songs over the years that we were like, 'Why are we avoiding this?'" Morris said.
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Hurd's first official single, "Love in a Bar" was about their budding relationship. "When Ryan put out his song, and it was so well-received, people were like, 'Oh my gosh, I met my husband in a bar and we fell in love at a bar, too!'" Morris told Country Living in April 2021. "So, it was cool to hear people's stories that were really similar to our own."
How long did Maren Morris date Ryan Hurd?
After dating almost two years, Morris posted a number of pictures with a rock on her finger on her Instagram account, with the word "yes" and an engagement ring emoji. Her engagement ring? A rough, uncut diamond.
Internet sleuths put the proposal date as July 3, 2017, as Hurd posted a quiet picture of the two of them in a small boat in the middle of water with that date. Hurd also played his song "Diamonds or Twine" for her when he proposed. "I wrote this song for you, played it for you in Michigan the night I asked you to marry me," he recalled on Instagram "Diamonds or Twine, no matter what, I'll be wrapped around your finger. I love you, MM. Here's to forever."
A post shared by Ryan Hurd (@ryanhurd)
When did Maren Morris get married?
The couple made it official on Saturday, March 24, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. Morris wore a dress inspired by her own mother's circa-1980s wedding dress. "She was a badass and had this short wedding dress, so I sent it to this designer that I love," Morris said at the time.
There were not a lot of frills and fancy things for Morris' wedding. "We just want it to feel like a party," she said while planning. "We don't want it to feel stuffy or have this long 18-course dinner. We want it to be like us. There's definitely going to be margaritas and some Motown music and my dog will be there. It's going to be a complete reflection of both of our styles and tastes and I'm so excited to share it with everybody."
The lovebirds returned to a bar to write their own vows the week of the wedding, according to Hurd. "We sat at the same table. [Morris] was on her laptop and I was writing on my notepad. We wrote our vows in a bar."
On the big day, it rained, but the affair was tented, so it went off without a hitch. Their dog Pancake walked down the aisle (well, he was carried by Morris' sister)—and later peed. "Come to our wedding and be yourself," Morris captioned Hurd's pic of their pooch caught in the act.
"Come to our wedding and be yourself…" https://t.co/NdgkYYHLLw
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) April 3, 2018
Wilson Phillips' "Hold On" was the song for their recessional (perhaps inspired by Bridesmaids?)
Morris also shared a picture of their first kiss as husband and wife, captioning it "My Last Turn Home," the name of the Tim McGraw song she and Hurd first wrote together.
My last turn home. pic.twitter.com/I48s4IdYzk
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) March 25, 2018
Hurd posted his own photos of their wedding day, including one he captioned "She's a classic."
Does Maren Morris have a child?
Almost exactly two years after the couple got married, on March 23, 2020, Morris gave birth to son Hayes Andrew via C-section after 30 hours (!) of labor. "I learned pretty quickly that night that having a plan for bringing a human into the world is a fool's errand," she reflected at the time. "All that mattered was that he got here safely."
Their son's name was solely Morris' idea, according to Hurd. "We stayed up late one night a couple years ago and I think we had too many drinks," he recalled. "Maren said, 'What would you name a boy if you had one?' and I was like, 'I always thought the name Hayes was cool' and she remembered it."
One of the most challenging things about being a parent? Posting pics and videos online and having strangers comment negatively. After getting flack for a picture she posted of herself and her son without a life jacket, Morris tweeted, "Honestly, I get so many criticisms of my motherhood on anything I post of Hayes, so I may just discontinue posting photos of him. Sucks but it's kind of where I'm at."
Honestly, I get so many criticisms of my motherhood on anything I post of Hayes, so I may just discontinue posting photos of him. Sucks but it's kind of where I'm at.
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) July 1, 2020
Fellow country star Mickey Guyton was quick to support Morris, writing, "Don't let them come for you sis. You're an amazing mother and those that have something to say don't deserve to see this beautiful life you created in love," Morris replied, "I mean, we talked about curbing posting photos anyway now that he's a little bit older, but the added crap from (mostly other moms) folks definitely forced our hand."
Hurd waded into the convo a few days later to defend his wife. "I'd just like to say, my wife usually doesn't need me to defend her, but she's a great mom, and my kid was not unsafe on a float in 1 feet of water being held by an adult with 5 people watching so she could get a picture," he tweeted on July 2. "Later, nerds." He also added, "Hayes has 2 coast guard approved life jackets that he wears. Also, sometimes moms have a drink, and homegirl earned it."
I'd just like to say, my wife usually doesn't need me to defend her, but she's a great mom, and my kid was not unsafe on a float in 1 feet of water being held by an adult with 5 people watching so she could get a picture.
— Ryan Hurd (@RyanHurd) July 2, 2020
These days, some footage of Hayes still makes its way onto the internet. This Halloween, for example, Morris posted a video of the little boy dressed up as Dwight Schrute from The Office.
Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. pic.twitter.com/XZDAUgKvRc
And of course, the musical parents play a lot of music for their son. "We play him a lot of Beatles songs," Hurd has said. "I like to sing him as many McCartney songs I can get… We're trying to just get him a good base of great music to listen to."
Who wrote "Chasing After You?"
Curiously, even those it's the first recorded duet for the married singer-songwriters, neither of them wrote it! Brinley Addington and Jerry Flowers penned the love song about fighting for and longing for a lover. "It really reminds Ryan and I of the beginning of our relationship," Morris told Billboard when the song was released. "It wasn't the easiest road for us to come together. We were in separate relationships when we met. We kind of grew a love out of a friendship over many years before we were out of those other relationships and could finally be together after some time. I think it reminds us of falling in love with each other and not being able to really act on it yet."
Hurd sang the song as far back as 2017, and others had expressed interest in it, but it never went anywhere. "It was held by tons of other artists that are much more successful than me," Hurd recalled. "For some reason, it never worked out with the other people who loved it too…when you find a song that you realize is a unicorn, very unique and special, and that you realize you can't write anything better, It was something I always wanted an opportunity to release."
"I think we knew that people would like it, but we never expected it to take on the life that it has," Hurd said about the song's success. "I get the tweets about it going up the Hot 100 chart, and you hope that you do well on the country music charts, but to see it on the big one is just… I don't even know if it's a dream come true, because I don't even think I ever had that dream."
In one of those weird COVID presented an opportunity moments, the two couple recorded the song during quarantine. "One upside of the pandemic is if we're not writing everyday, it's like, 'Let's take a look at this [older] song,'" Morris remembered. "We recorded our vocals in our basement and polished it up and were like, 'Why don't we release this? No one's doing anything right now.' That's how it came to be."
How do Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd keep their marriage strong?
Being famous and having competing touring schedules can be tough. Morris admits the two went to couples counseling some months after they were first married. After their honeymoon in Bora Bora, she was the opening act for Niall Horan on tour, and has called it "the hardest part of our relationship."
"It was a tough summer," she said. "But we have grown so much closer because we had to make some hard decisions and have some tough talks about what this future looks like and how we can make this better. I have always loved him, but I feel like I like him in ways I never knew I could before."
Why go to therapy? "Getting married made me want to better myself and figure out why I do the things I do… and for my own mental health, as I go deeper and deeper into this world of music, I need another outlet besides writing songs to get out what I'm feeling," she recalled—so they went to therapy. (She also admitted to wanting their brains to be "doctored up" before they had kids.)
Morris and Hurd have also been inspired by another famous, Nashville-based pair: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. "I've learned so much from Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. They've got the two week rule; he's got his kids out on the road. They just make it look so normal and it makes me and Ryan feel like this could be normal as well," she told Us Weekly in 2019.
These days, the pair stay in contact when they're working apart. "We do a pretty good job at constantly keeping in contact, lots of FaceTime. We have the same manager now, so she helps our calendars really coalesce well and that's helped it a good bit. Especially now that we're married, it's a little bit more important to us to see each other. We try to have a good balance."
In the end, though, music that brought them together is a big reason their relationship is so strong. For her album GIRL, Morris consulted her husband throughout. "I really trust his opinion, especially if I have a new song that maybe we didn't write together, I always play him the mix the second I get it back, because I really trust his ear," Morris said in April. "I love that we're such different artists … But he's always been my biggest fan when it comes to my music and vice versa." There may even be more duets coming. "We've written so many songs together about each other, who's to say?" Morris told Billboard in February 2021. "We could put it out tomorrow, probably," Hurd added. Morris says it's nice to have a partner who knows what you're going through. "It's nice to be with someone who gets exactly what you're doing and can talk you down if you're having a bad day and is just right there with you. He's that for me."
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