Brad Paisley Reveals the Key to His Long & Happy Marriage: "We Both Have..."
The country star has a beautiful family with his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley.
Bursting onto the scene from small-town West Virginia, Brad Paisley first set Nashville ablaze in the '90s, crafting hit singles like “He Didn't Have to Be" and "Who Needs Pictures." Over the past three decades, Paisley has left an indelible mark in the country music scene, selling out world tours, topping charts, and performing at the Opry 100: A Live Celebration.
Blake Shelton will be jostling with country music’s biggest names when he goes live from Nashville on March 19 to host the centennial anniversary event, toasting 100 years of the Grand Ole Opry. Paisley himself has been an Opry member since 2001 and has become one of the country genre’s most likable and enduring faces throughout his decades-long career.
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For the past 25 years, Paisley has hit the top of the country charts almost that same number of times, thanks to his unmistakable voice, an uncanny gift for crafting clever and catchy hooks, and his sometimes slept-on six-string gymnastics. Though his lyrics can sometimes delve pretty deep into the darker side of romance and lost love (like his acclaimed “Whiskey Lullaby” duet with Alison Krauss), Paisley’s a devoted and down-to-earth family man — as fans found out firsthand when he debuted his hour-long 2019 TV variety show Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special.
Read on to learn all about Paisley's famous wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and their beautiful family.
All about Brad Paisley’s famous wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Already an established acting icon for her award-nominated starring role in Father of the Bride (1991) and its sequel, Kimberly Williams first met Paisley after getting the invite to star in the music video for his 2002 hit song “I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song).” The country star was already a big fan of the actress, after first seeing her as George Banks' daughter, Annie, and told Good Housekeeping that he went to see Father of the Bride II alone to cheer himself up after a breakup. "I thought, she seems like a great girl — smart and funny and all those things that are so hard to find," he told the magazine.
Not long after she starred in his music video, the two started dating and then married in 2003, each continuing their successful careers and eventually starting a family together.
Both before and after the birth of the couple’s two children, Williams-Paisley — an older sister to How I Met Your Mother actress Ashley Williams — remained active in both movies and on television. In 2006, she lent her voice to the English version of the Japanese animated 2006 feature film Porco Rosso while also starring in the kid-friendly comedy How to Eat Fried Worms, all while maintaining a steady stream of small-screen guest appearances in series like Less than Perfect (2005), Boston Legal (2008), Royal Pains (2012), and Two and a Half Men (2014).
TV fans also know Williams-Paisley for her extended recurring role as Peggy Kenter, a Music City power player on the country-centric TV series Nashville. She’s also voiced an animated girlfriend in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015), kept the holiday spirit opposite Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020), and, most recently, starred in the 2023 feature films Dog Gone and Jesus Revolution.
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Brad Paisley on the key to his happy marriage with wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Paisley has credited the couple's "healthy senses of humor" as the key to their long and happy marriage.
“We both have very healthy senses of humor. Anything I take myself too seriously on, she will gladly cut me down to size on and destroy all pre-conceived notions that I’m cool in any way,” Paisley told country lifestyle magazine The Boot. "You've got to have similar outlooks and really healthy senses of humor. Pretension should be completely gone in a marriage. Actually, it should be gone before you get married! You should know somebody really well and know that they know how to take a joke and they know how to take you. That's the key — a sense of humor."
How many children does Brad Paisley have?
The Paisleys were married for four years before the 2007 birth of William “Huck” Huckleberry, the first of their two sons, followed soon after by the birth of second child Jasper in 2009.
Now each in their teens, the Paisley siblings have created new priorities for Brad and Kimberly themselves: “Fatherhood changes everything!” the singer shared with The Boot. “…It changes your beliefs in almost [everything]; it just shakes you to your core. One of my favorite sayings that I've heard somewhere is: ‘It's to have your heart go walking around without you.’ It really is that way, so you feel things deeper.”
The Paisleys’ focus on family took on special significance after Kimberly lost her voice in 2022, the onset of a two-year ordeal of recovery after suffering from a partially paralyzed vocal cord. “My kids were great cheerleaders for me,” she told People in a 2024 interview. “At an event, they knew if someone I wanted to talk to was walking away and I couldn't get them, and they'd get them for me. They're used to assisting me, which is really sweet.”
How to watch the Opry 100: A Live Celebration special
Paisley is just one of the big acts slated to perform at NBC's Opry 100: A Live Celebration. On March 19, he'll be joined by an expansive list of celebrity guests that includes Reba McEntire, Kelsea Ballerini, Keith Urban, Ricky Skaggs, Lainey Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Clint Black, Dierks Bentley, Garth Brooks, Marty Stuart, Trace Adkins, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, and many more.
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To catch all of these performances and see a few special appearances from country legends, tune into NBC at 8 p.m. ET to watch the Opry 100: A Live Celebration live from Nashville. The full three-hour event will also be available to stream live on Peacock.
Planning to be in Nashville in person? Find out how to grab your Opry 100 tickets here!
