Emmy Russell Shares the 'Magic' of Her Last Year — from Welcoming a Baby Daughter to Secretly Getting Married (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jacob Fox

Emmy Russellis carving out her own legacy.

“My labor was long, but it was worth it,” Russell, 26, tells PEOPLE. “I remember looking at her and she immediately had…her eyes were wide open, they sat her on me, and she just looked at me, she knew I was her mom, and I just looked at her and like, ugh, it makes me cry still.”

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“I was really out of it because I was losing so much blood, and so I wasn’t really able to lift her my entire time at the hospital,” she shares. “But every time that I did get the chance to…that’s your child, it just melts your heart. I didn’t really know that kind of love existed.”

When it came time to decide their daughter’s name, Russell knew she wanted to honor her husband, Ward, whom she met through his company called Song House, a collective of songwriters based out of downtown Nashville. After coming off ofIdol, Russell was at home when she says she felt like she heard someone telling her she was pregnant.

Emmy Russell and Tyler Ward.Jacob Fox

Once she took a test, the musician discovered that she actuallywaspregnant — and she already had the name. “We said we had this name Radiant planned out, and it’s weird, but I just felt like that was the name,” Russell says. “And then I was thinking, ‘Well, Tyler’s middle name’s Ray.’ And then I told his mom and she was like, ‘Well, it’s a family name.'”

The two ultimately felt like they didn’t want to settle on a name until they met their daughter. But when she came out, they knew immediately.

“Wait a second, is that me as a female?” Ward, a former YouTuber turned singer-songwriter, remembered asking. “And we talked about it a little bit, but Emmy was so down, and she was like, ‘Why don’t we just do it, ‘Taylor Ray Ward?’ And my name is Tyler Ray Ward.”

“So her name is Taylor Raydiant Ward, R-A-Y-D-I-A-N-T,” Ward, 40, clarifies. “We went with Taylor Ray for Tyler Ray, because she looks very similar and I’m freaking out. It’s amazing.”

Emmy Russell, Tyler Ward and Ward’s nephew.Jacob Fox

“Emmy and I had been together for a while, and her heart was just like, ‘I want to be married.’ And then I’m like, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be married,’ " Ward shares. “And then you think about losing someone that you become best friends with and tight with and you’re like, ‘Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe that’s what marriage is. It’s just like, I don’t want this person out of my life.'”

The couple is not a fan of big weddings or prolonged processes, so instead of going through the typical wedding planning, they opted to have a last-minute ceremony in a living room.

“We told everybody so last minute because we wanted to make sure it was for us and not everybody else,” Ward explains, noting they bought a Kroger cake and got twinkle lights. “We wrote our own vows. And it was one of those things where you’re like, this to me is how it’s supposed to be, because it was between us.”

“And so they wrote this song, surprising me and Emmy, they came out like, ‘Hey, we think you’ll like this.’ And they played it, and I couldn’t get enough,” he continues. “I teared up so much, to where it felt like our song.”

“There was just such magic that it was like, ‘Let’s put it out, and maybe we’ll have a duet and maybe we’ll be a band. And we have all these other songs, maybe we’ll start releasing music as a duet,” Ward says. “And the whole flood gates opened of ideas.”

“And it’s called ‘London Bridges,’ and so it’s like the nursery song, London Bridges, like ‘London Bridge is falling down,’ " Russell explains. “So it’s like that, ‘When your London Bridges are falling down, I’ll be right there with you. So we’re right there for you.'”

Recording the music video was emotional for both Ward and Russell, who admits she “cried probably the second, third take.” Ward, in turn, says he was “crying the entire time.”

“It’s beyond what I know at the moment; it feels like a brand new adventure we’re on, and I feel like everybody’s been here before, but it feels so new to us,” Ward says of the experience.

“And so being able to write the song or just record the song and perform the song, for the week old darling Taylor Ray, I just think that that is the stamped moment you just…it’s a scrapbook moment you always go to. It’s one of those significant moments that just shape you.”

“London Bridges"is streaming now on all platforms.

source: people.com