Congratulations to Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins! The couple announced, in a video posted on social media, that they are expecting baby No. 5!
“While I was wrapping my head around being a dad, a big wrench got thrown in the family we thought we had / Lauren’s showing, one on the way / That’s five under ten, yeah what can I say,” Rhett sings, to the tune of his 2018 hit, “Life Changes.”
“Here we go again!” Rhett captions the video. “We’ve got some really excited big sisters in our house. God is so good.”
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All About Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins’ Family
Rhett and Akins are the parents to four daughters. Their oldest daughter, Willa Gray, who is nine, was born in Uganda. Rhett and Akins adopted Willa in 2017, shortly before Akins gave birth to Ada James, who just turned eight. Their third child, Lennon Love, is five years old, while their youngest, Lillie Carolina, is three.
He has hinted that he and Akins may not be done having children.
“It is very stressful, I feel like, to travel with your kids and still know that you’re waking up at six and you’re also playing a show at night,” Rhett previously admitted to ABC, after the arrival of Ada. “So in that aspect, I’m going, ‘I love my two kids and I’m kind of content.’
“If we stopped having kids now, I know I’d wake up at 45 and go, ‘We should have had five more,’” he added. “Because I really do want to be able to sit at a Thanksgiving or Christmas table with the most gigantic family on the planet.”
Rhett admits it is hard to manage his superstar career with a wife and four daughters.
“Obviously, [I’ve] been blessed with an amazing family, blessed with being able to play shows and make music,” Rhett reflects. “But I think as my kids get older, it does become more challenging to do as much as I used to. I still try to keep up on social media, but at the same time, I do feel like when I am on social media a lot, then I’m neglecting something else. And my kids will always take precedence over that stuff.
“But at the same time,” he adds, “my wife and my kids know that this is what I love and what I was born to do, and so I think it’s just more about balancing the time now than it is just doing it all the time.”
Thomas Rhett’s Marriage to Lauren Akins
Rhett and Akins wed in 2012, although Rhett knew even in elementary school that he wanted to marry Akins. Still, their relationship hasn’t always been easy, especially with Rhett’s superstar career.
“We were becoming famous at arguably the hardest moment in our personal lives,” Rhett tells Us Weekly. “Adopting [Willa Gray] and getting pregnant at the same time while having to be in Uganda for a year with me traveling back and forth was so challenging. I’d go to Uganda and be husband and dad, and then go to America and be like, ‘Okay, shows and music.’ I was internally imploding, and so was Lauren. We’d both come to these breaking points [feeling like] something has to give. It was not a fun time in our marriage.”
Fortunately, the two found a way to make it work, especially since they vowed that divorce, for them, would never be an optioin.
“Giving up was not an option,” Rhett says. “That thought has never crossed my mind or Lauren’s. With me being a fixer and Lauren being stubborn, we made it work. The easiest thing to do is quit. But when you don’t and you keep grinding it out, you’ll inevitably become stronger.”
Photo Credit: CMA