How Did Faith Hill and Tim McGraw Meet? All About Their 'Immediate Spark' — and Why It Took Her So Long to Say Yes to a Date

Mar. 15, 2025

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill attend the debut of their exhibition at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on November 15, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.Photo:Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Tim McGrawfell forFaith Hill"in an instant" when he first met her in 1994, but it wasn’t until two years later that the two started dating.

The country stars first crossed paths at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville in the spring of 1994. Both were in relationships at the time, McGraw with Kristine Donahue and Hill engaged to Scott Hendricks.

However, two years later, when Hill joined McGraw on his Spontaneous Combustiontour in 1996, the two fell in love. “We were young and silly and goo-goo-eyed in love,” McGraw later told PEOPLE.

The family share a close bond, and McGraw has often credited Hill for being his rock, especially for helping him stay sober after he felt he had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

“My wife always says, ‘You’re not scared of anything.’ I say, ‘Ehhh, one thing. I’m looking at it right now,’ " he toldEsquirein 2021. “I didn’t know love could feel so good. Was it an emotion? Was it a lifestyle? Was it an imaginary thing? But love is all of those things.”

So how did Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s romance begin? Here’s everything to know about how the two first met and their love since.

McGraw and Hill first crossed paths at a show in Nashville

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on the first night they met in Nashville.Tim McGraw/Instagram

Tim McGraw/Instagram

McGraw and Hill were both at a Country Radio Seminar showcase for new talent in Nashville when they met. They took their first picture ever together that day backstage of the “New Faces” show, McGraw wrote in a 27th wedding anniversary tribute to his wife in October 2023.

The first time McGraw asked Hill out, he came with a bowl of dumplings

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw at an event in New York in the 1990s.Steve Eichner/Getty Images

Steve Eichner/Getty Images

“You brought me chicken and dumplings, you came to my house, you didn’t announce that you were coming,” Hill shared on the show, turning to McGraw. “Knocked on my door, opened my door, and he had a bowl of homemade chicken and dumplings, and he said, ‘I made these myself; they’re homemade from scratch.’ "

“Hey, look, you make up for your inadequacies,” McGraw joked.

They reconnected when Hill joined him on tour

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw at the Andre Agassi Grand Slam For Children 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images

KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images

After their first meeting, the two country stars reunited in 1996 when Hill joined McGraw on his Spontaneous Combustion tour. Hill was still engaged at the time, but she and McGraw eventually split from their partners and got together.

“If someone is going to judge my character because I was engaged to somebody and then I left him for somebody else … I can’t control that,” Hill told PEOPLE in 1998. “But I wasn’t about to let Tim slip through my hands.”

Hill was initially hesitant to get engaged

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw at the Andre Agassi Grand Slam For Children in 1996.KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images

On their 25th wedding anniversary in October 2021, McGraw shared the story ofhow he proposed to Hillon June 26, 1996, calling it the “best day of my life.” While she did say yes, Hill was initially hesitant to marry McGraw as she was wary of being with a country singer.

“We had dated for a while,” McGraw reflected. “I actually asked her to marry me quite a few times and she kept saying no. She said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with another country singer, it’s just not going to work out.’ "

However, McGraw finally got down on one knee in his dressing room at a country music festival, hoping Hill would say yes.

“She said, ‘We’re at a country music festival in a trailer house, and you’re asking me to marry you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ So I went onstage … When I came back offstage, [I saw] a Sharpie with lipstick kisses all over it, saying, ‘Yes! I’m gonna be your wife,’ " he recalled.

Hill had written her acceptance of his proposal on the mirror, and to this day, the couple still have it in their home.

They got married in 1996

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw attend the 24th Annual American Music Awards on January 27, 1997 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.Ron Galella/Getty Images

Ron Galella/Getty Images

Just four months after getting engaged, Hill and McGraw tied the knot on Oct. 6, 1996. The two pulled off a surprise wedding, inviting their family and friends to what they thought was going to be a softball game and concert in McGraw’s hometown of Rayville, La., but was actually the couple’s nuptials.

“We had to tried to plan it a couple times but everybody kept finding out about it,” McGraw shared onLIVE! with Regis and Kellyin 2011 about why they decided to surprise their family with the wedding.

He shared that his whole family was ready for a celebrity softball game but came out of the car to Hill and McGraw dressed in wedding gear. The couple said their “I do’s” under a locust tree in his aunt’s backyard.

The “My Best Friend” singer said his sisters were a “little upset” because they wanted to “dress up,” but otherwise everyone was pleased.

They share three children

Gracie McGraw, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Audrey McGraw and Maggie McGraw.Kevin Mazur/Getty

The girls have stepped out with their parents at several red carpets over the years and continue to be a source of pride for McGraw and Hill.

“It’s inspiring to me to watch them go out on their own and do the things they do,” McGraw told PEOPLE in 2021 about his daughters. “We’ve raised three strong, independent, strong-minded young women. And what I’m most grateful for isjust how normal our kids areand how grounded they are and how much they respect themselves and other people. It makes me feel like we’ve done a pretty decent job, especially Mom.”

source: people.com