The 30-year-old country singer and his 31-year-old wife walked the red carpet together while arriving at the 2020 CMA Awards on Wednesday (November 11) at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Thomas kept things classic in an all black tux while Lauren looked pretty in a pink, silk dress for the awards event.
Thomas is up for two awards tonight, including Male Vocalist of the Year.
“Every time I’m nominated, it’s a complete shock and surprise just because there’s so much talent in country music,” Thomas recently told People about his nominations. “Anytime that my name shows up on a ballot, I just feel very blessed and very thankful for it.”
The 30-year-old country singer took to his Instagram on Sunday (November 1) to share a sweet message celebrating his daughter’s birthday.
“Ok I’m really sorry for all the posts today but we went straight from Halloween to Willa Grays’s 5th birthday,” Thomas wrote. “WG you continue to amaze me with your heart, your kindness, your selflessness, and your hilariousness. You make me such a better human being, and I’m inspired by you every single day. You may be 5 but you already act like your 15.”
“You are the MOST amazing big sister that AJ and Lennon could ask for,” Thomas continued. “I can’t wait to watch you grow and be there with you every step of the way. To my beautiful baby girl, happy birthday sweet pea!”
Thomas and his wife Lauren Akins adopted Willa from Uganda back in 2017. They are also parents to biological daughters Ada James, 3, and Lennon Love, 8 months.
For the first time ever, there has been a tie in the Entertainer of the Year category at the ACM Awards!
Carrie Underwood and Thomas Rhett shared the honor during the 2020 event and they accepted the awards on stage at the event on Wednesday (September 16) at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn.
A woman hasn’t won the award since Taylor Swift won it back in 2012. Carrie has won Entertainer of the Year twice before, in 2009 and 2010. This is Thomas‘ first win in the category!
During his appearance, Thomas talked about his new memoir, Live in Love, and admitted there were “parts where I wish I wasn’t made out to look like such a jerk.”
“There were certain parts in our marriage where I was a bit jerky, especially through the adoption — not that any of this was my fault,” he explained.
He revealed that the couple experienced difficulties during the adoption process for their daughter Willa Gray, 4, while he was touring and she was visiting Uganda, pregnant with their now 3-year-old Ada James.
“Lauren called me because it was 9 o’clock in the morning in Uganda and…she hears all of her friends in the background. Meanwhile, Lauren is seven months pregnant and throwing up in a bathroom in Uganda. That was when Lauren was like, ‘We are living two completely separate lives right now.’”
“That was a really humbling experience for me, just knowing what she was dealing with in a sense of aloneness while I’m kind of living life as usual. That part was really hard for us, for sure. Kind of getting over that and going through some therapy, especially over that one night,” he explained.
“Coming on the other side of that, I feel like I learned so much from that experience. It made me know that, in a marriage, you do have to figure stuff out. You have to talk about it. You’ve gotta be real about it. You’ve gotta be honest about it…hopefully, there’s somebody else reading that chapter going, ‘Man, I’ve been in that same position. If they can work it out, we can work it out too.’”
The 30-year-old singer-songwriter and the 30-year-old nurse, who adopted their daughter Willa from Uganda in 2016, spoke out amid the Black Lives Matter protests nationwide following the murder of George Floyd.
“As the father of a black daughter and also two white daughters- I have struggled with what to say today. We have navigated forms of racism directly and while there is mostly overwhelming support and love for our family, sometimes there is just the opposite. Because of that fear, it can be a lot easier to choose silence, but today I’m choosing to speak,” said Thomas.
“I have been nervous to post anything in the past and even now because of how some people believe that I as a white mother am undeserving or incapable of raising a black daughter. I believe that shaming comes from people who choose to see only my white skin and her brown skin and refuse to see our hearts and love for each other. That shaming has created such anxiety in me that I am afraid to share my heart on social media. But as her mother, I want her to be VERY sure that I am HER mother who stands up not only for her, but for every single person who shares her beautiful brown skin,” Lauren wrote.
It was an emotional interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show when Kelly had country singer Thomas Rhett and his wife Lauren Akins open up about adopting their four-year-old daughter Willa Gray.
Kelly asked why the couple decided to adopt before having a biological child and Lauren mentioned how her mom was adopted.
“I just thought it was really cool,” she said. “We’d talked about it off and on, but it wasn’t something that we had sat down and had, like, a full-on adoption conversation.”
Lauren went to Uganda in 2016 with the organization 147 Million Orphans and she connected with a baby girl while there. She called Thomas up on FaceTime and told him that they had to find a home for the girl.
“I was telling him her story and I was like, ‘Babe, we know so many people who are trying to adopt right now, and this little girl needs a forever home,’” she said. “I was, like, so moved. I mean, the second I touched her, it was, like, electric. I was like, ‘Oh my word. This little girl has just taken my heart.’ I was like, ‘Honey, we’ve gotta find her her forever home. Like, I know that’s why I’m here is to get this girl to her home.’”
This is when Kelly started to tear up. She said, “I did my own makeup and this is not waterproof. It’s so beautiful because I know that feeling. As a mama, you touch them and you hug them. It doesn’t matter if it’s yours or not. We’re a blended family. You’re like, this is my purpose. It’s such a powerful thing.”
Thomas ended up telling his wife to bring him the baby.
“I don’t fully remember even saying it,” he said. “It was, like, such a spiritual thing for me that it came out of my body. Then, literally two weeks after, we were having home assessments and talking to adoption agencies.”
The special will feature celebs with their families as they take on their favorite Disney tunes from their homes. The one-hour special will air on Thursday (April 16) at 8pm ET.
“If there’s something that we’ve all learned in the past few weeks, it’s to cherish every moment and the importance of connection, whether through laughter, stories or music,” says ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke. “We hope that we can help create some new unforgettable moments in everyone’s home in a way that only the magic of Disney can.”
Station 19 will be moving to the 9pm time slot on Thursday nights for the remainder of its season, filling the space vacated by Grey’s Anatomy. That show ended its season last night, four weeks earlier than planned.
