Lauren Alaina and her husband, Cam Arnold, welcomed their first child, daughter Beni Doll Arnold, into the world on June 11, 2025. For Alaina, nothing has ever been the same since then, in the best way possible.
“She’s about to be a year old,” Alaina tells Entertainment Tonight. “I could sob over that. It’s crazy how fast it’s gone. But she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, honestly. I had no idea how much I would love being a mother. She’s got little chunky cheeks, and her daddy’s big brown eyes.”
Alaina’s career has not slowed down at all since becoming a mother. She is spending much of the summer headlining her The Stages Tour, bringing her daughter on the road with her.
“I’m so proud to be representing mothers,” the 31-year-old says. “You can have it all. You don’t have to pick the career or the family, I hope, because it’s what I’m doing.”
Alaina knows not everyone understands her parenting choices, which is fine by her. If anything, Alaina is illustrating that there is no one-size-fits-all model for being a mother.
“This mom-shaming has got to stop,” Alaina says. “It’s hard enough as a mom, because you feel so unqualified. I get really furious on the internet, seeing people comment on videos of mothers mothering. I’m like, ‘I want to fight you in your front yard.'”
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Lauren Alaina’s New ‘Stages’ Album
Alaina’s new Stages album will be out on August 28. The record includes her current “All My Exes” single with Chase Matthew, plus her “Better Off” anthem, which she just released.
“I wanted to just kind of tell my whole story, since everyone met me,” the American Idol alum says.
“Better Off” says in part, “Dirty blonde went and did you dirty / Hope she hurt you like you hurt me / I know you never think, but I bet you never thought / I’d be the one, be the one who’s better off.” Alaina wrote the break-up anthem with Joe Fox, Matt Jenkins, and Josh Miller.
“I have such high hopes for ‘Better Off,’ because it feels like a song that Carrie Underwood would have put out, that I would have turned all the way up and screamed in the car,” Alaina says. “And I was like, ‘We need a screamable cheating song for the ladies right now.'”
The Inspiration Behind “Better Off” by Lauren Alaina
Alaina declines to name who inspired “Better Off,” but she does call him a “prolific cheater.”
“We all have the guy that cheats,” Alaina reflects. “When I was writing it, I was thinking about the moment I found out he cheated. A girl DM’ed me on Instagram. Actually, multiple. But one I finally believed. So he was telling all of these other women that they were also his girlfriend. I just remember the pure rage. It’s called ‘Better Off’ because my life is so much better off without him in it.”
When “Better Off” was released, Alaina said she intentionally wrote it from the viewpoint of being better without the philanderer.
“I wrote “Better Off” from the perspective of a girl who finally realizes she didn’t lose anything by being cheated on…in a lot of ways, she ended up much better off,” she says. “It’s full of sass and attitude, but underneath it all, it’s really about growth and knowing your worth. I’m in such a beautiful season of life now with my husband and daughter, and this song feels like finally closing the door on a different stage of my life.”
Photo Credit: Natasha Moustache / CMA