Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins are one of country music’s most enviable couples, and even they have their ups and downs.
Akins, speaking Tuesday to People while promoting her new book Live in Love, said that the pair, both 30, have to work on their marriage like everyone else.
‘There’s a lot of pressure to portray that you have a perfect life, and family, and marriage, especially on social media and in the public eye,’ the Madison, Tennessee native said. ‘I think the quicker that I’m able to just get on the table that, “Hey, we struggle just like every other married couple, we struggle just like every other parent, we struggle just like every other human,” it takes that pressure and weight off our shoulders to have to be a certain way.
Beaming: Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins, both 30, are one of country music’s most enviable couples, and even they have their ups and downs. Akins, speaking to People promoting her new book Live in Love, said that the pair work on their marriage like everyone else.
‘It gives the green light to be us.’
Akins, who is mom to daughters with the Die a Happy Man singer – Willa Gray, four, Ada James, three and Lennon Love, six months – said she hopes her new memoir will resonate with people who can relate to what she and her family have been through, including marriage counseling and difficult career choices.
‘My hope is that people can find themselves in the pages, and they’ll be able to realize that deep down, every human heart has the same wants and feelings,’ Akins told the outlet. ‘We want to be known, we want to be loved, we want to have people to love. I hope that those walls will be pulled down.’
She said that the book presents more of a raw reality of life than through the ‘filters in the world, and social media’ that presents a ‘look at love that seems to be perfect.’
Cathartic: Akins said penning the tome had a therapeutic effect on her
Happy family: Akins is mom to daughters with the Die a Happy Man singer – Willa Gray, four, Ada James, three and Lennon Love, six months
‘But that’s not reality, and it’s a lot to try to live up to. So I hope that people can see the imperfections of our life and find themselves in those imperfections, and feel a sense of hope, encouragement and ultimately love.’
Akins said penning the tome had a therapeutic effect on her: ‘Recounting every story, good and bad, significant in my life was really incredible. It was exhausting, but I think it was really good for me too.’
She said she thinks the book ‘will be healthy for people to read’ and hopes ‘it encourages people to be honest and real about what they feel and hopefully help them to see people in a different light.
‘Kindness and loving people well are the only ways we’re going to get through some of the darkness we’ve encountered this year.’
She said of writing a book, ‘It’s been a long time coming. I’m ready to get it behind me, the good and the bad, and just to have the project complete will feel really good.’
Akins told the magazine that it has been great to have Rhett at home over the past six months with the newborn, with touring shut down as result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘We have had a really sweet last six months with our new family of five,’ Akins said. ‘It has been my dream come true having him home.’
She continued: ‘I think it was hard for him to have to go from such a fast-paced life to slowing way down. Then to be in it with me and three kids every single day, every single night, was hard for him because he’s able to catch up on sleep when he goes to the bus and gets full nights of sleep.’
Live in Love is available now.