
A love story with an uncommon starting. Brandi Carlile and her spouse, Catherine Shepherd, first struck up a relationship over the telephone — nevertheless it wasn’t lengthy earlier than they hit it off in particular person as effectively.
The Grammy winner and the U.Okay. native met in 2009 whereas Shepherd was working for Paul McCartney, coordinating his charity work. Carlile and her future spouse spoke over the telephone for a 12 months earlier than lastly assembly in particular person.
“Actually quite a lot of it was about activism and charity,” the Damaged Horses writer recalled of these early days throughout an interview with Howard Stern in October 2021. “However then at some point one thing simply modified.”
The Highwomen member has a definite reminiscence of the second when she realized she considered Shepherd as greater than a good friend. Carlile was on tour in Vermont when Shepherd came visiting her on her tour bus. “I hadn’t seen her for six or seven months and I had ended my [previous] relationship,” the “Proper on Time” singer informed Stern. “I noticed her on the entrance door and it was like, ‘That’s it. The whole lot’s totally different. No day will ever be the identical.’ I used to be simply switched. I used to be completely infatuated together with her, completely in love together with her.”
The couple tied the knot in September 2012 in what Carlile described as a “falling down barn” close to Seattle. “It was really certainly one of our greatest days, utterly awkward and human and exquisite,” the “You and Me on the Rock” crooner wrote by way of Fb one month after the nuptials. “I’m married to my finest good friend and nothing has ever introduced me extra pleasure than that.”
In 2014, the twosome welcomed their first daughter, Evangeline, who later turned the title topic of certainly one of Carlile’s songs. Their second little one, daughter Elijah, arrived in 2018. In a 2021 essay for Dad and mom journal, the CMT Music Award winner opened up about how she and Shepherd navigated their journey to parenthood as members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
“For my spouse and me, each a part of our emergence into the world of parenting was intentional and all the time felt just a little like strolling out onto skinny ice, blindfolded,” Carlile wrote, including that Shepherd carried each of their youngsters. “It was sophisticated as a result of I didn’t know who I used to be purported to be on this equation. I knew I wasn’t ‘Dad,’ however I wasn’t pregnant both. Catherine was uncomfortable with all of the issues that had been occurring to her physique, and the entire idea felt so international to us.”
Ultimately, nonetheless, the pair discovered a rhythm that works for his or her household. “The best way we strategy parenting now feels instinctual, even pure,” Carlile defined. “We divide duties by what feels essential to us within the second, not based mostly on society’s expectations of mothers and dads.”
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Hold scrolling for Carlile and Shepherd’s full relationship timeline: