Brantley Gilbert Explains Why Wife Amber Was Almost the 'One That Got Away': 'Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me'

Mar. 15, 2025

Amber Cochran Gilbert and Brantley Gilbert in Nashville in 2019.Photo:Taylor Hill/Getty

Taylor Hill/Getty

Brantley Gilbert’s love story proves that two people can find their way back to each other.

During a Tuesday, Oct. 1 appearance on theGod’s Countrypodcast, which is produced in conjunction with The MeatEater Network, the country star opened up about his sweet journey with wifeAmber Cochran Gilbert.

“We had some history. I met her [when] I was working some community service hours off at a church. My cousin [Doug] is a Christian counselor and therapist. Incredible guy… so he would hook me up and sign off for some hours and it helped me a lot,” Gilbert, 39, said.

“But [my future wife’s] family went to that church and man… I remember the day she walked in and seeing her for the first time and just being blown away,” he continued. “It was one of those things where I didn’t know if it was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna marry her. That’s the one,’ but knew it was something. Very soon after that, I knew I wanted to marry her. Our daughter, Braylen — we came up with her name back then.”

Gilbert went on to explain that they have “a lot of history” but he was “involved in something that shouldn’t have been” and she was a “church girl.” He was being “self-destructive” at the time, he said, and “living against my nature for many, many years.”

One night, Amber confronted him about his drinking and said she couldn’t consider “forever” with someone who had those tendencies. They split that night and didn’t speak for seven years.

Brantley Gilbert in Nashville in July 2024.Tibrina Hobson/Getty

Tibrina Hobson/Getty

“I got a call one night from my cousin, the guy that was the youth pastor, and he said, ‘Man, there’s somebody you know from back in the day that’s going through some things. And since she heard you were sober … If you wouldn’t mind saying hello, if you’ve had the time this week, she’ll be around the house all week,'” he recalled, adding that they had both moved on with other people at that point.

Turns out, the man Amber was dating wasn’t a good person — and Gilbert thought they were calling him to “handle that.”

“But it wasn’t that at all… I just remember sitting in Doug’s driveway going, ‘Single for life, single for life, no matter what. No matter what she looks like, no matter what she’s going through, don’t get sucked in,'” he recalled.

“She walked around the corner and all that s— flew out the window. It was done, dude. I remember like she walked up… and she really was going through a really tough time in her life. I remember seeing her and it wasn’t no handshake,” he continued. “We really didn’t say anything. I just opened my arms and she kind of just fell in and I kissed her on the forehead and said, ‘I got you.'”

It was “the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said, and they’ve been “inseparable since.”

“Happy anniversary to my hot ass wifey. You’re a rockstar and I love you,“he wroteat the time.

Gilbert and Amber announced the pregnancy in May. The couple also share daughterBraylen Hendrix, 5, and sonBarrett Hardy-Clay, 6½.

source: people.com