Look in the dictionary under the phrase “whirlwind romance,” and chances are you’ll find a photo of Miranda Lambert and Brendan McLoughlin: The couple met in November of 2018 and secretly got married on Jan. 26, 2019, at Cogan’s Farm, which is located in Henderson, Tenn.
“I feel like I’ve been through enough in my life to know what I don’t want,” Lambert told People in October of 2019, “so when I know what I do want I snatch it right up.”
The country star announced her wedding news in mid-February of 2019, with a sweet Instagram post featuring photos of her sporting a lacy dress from Lela Rose Bridal (a style dubbed “Canyon”) and embracing McLoughlin. “In honor of Valentine’s Day I wanted to share some news,” she wrote. “I met the love of my life. And we got hitched! My heart is full. Thank you Brendan Mcloughlin for loving me for … me.”
As to why she kept her nuptials so quiet, Lambert — who was previously married to Blake Shelton and also linked with Anderson East — told People that she wanted to do things differently than she had in the past. “I was married before, and it was a huge wedding and everything was very public. So was my divorce,” she said, alluding to her marriage to Shelton. “I learned then that it’s not for everybody else. This is my actual life. With Brendan, I made it a point to keep it as private as I could for as long as I could.”
Lambert met McLoughlin when the Pistol Annies performed on Good Morning America on Nov. 2, 2018. In a meet-cute, he was doing security, as he was working as a New York City police officer at the time (he retired from the NYPD in early 2020, reportedly to join Lambert’s security team).
“My girlfriends, the Annies, saw him and knew I might be ready to hang out with someone,” Lambert told the New York Times. “They invited him to our show behind my back. They plucked him for me. My security guy Tom, he was in on it too. He said to me, ‘He’s here. And he’s pretty.'”
Today, Lambert and her husband split their time between New York, where McLoughlin’s young son from a previous relationship lives, and Nashville. “We have the best of both worlds,” she tells Extra. “We spend time in New York, we get to see our adorable nugget, then we get to come back to the farm and have the quiet life. I’m enjoying the balance.”
In 2020, as Lambert’s touring schedule ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple hitched up a trailer and began a quarantine-era road trip, even adopting a kitten along the way. Later that year, he appeared in her “Settling Down” music video, filmed at their Nashville-area home.
“We’re pretty much newlyweds since we’ve only been married a year and a half,” Lambert shared that summer, “but we’ve already survived a pandemic, so I think we’re golden.”