Tim McGraw Shares Special Promise Behind His 26 Years Of Marriage To Faith Hill

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are celebrating 26 years of marriage – which will become 27 this autumn – and have a unique way of keeping each day fresh and their commitment strong. McGraw recently spoke with ET Canada and discussed the promise they made when the couple tied the knot, one which inspires them to this day.

Hill, 55, and McGraw, 56, met for the first time in 1994 at a gig in Nashville; at the time, both were seeing other people but ended up crossing paths two years later during McGraw’s 1996 Spontaneous Combustion tour. At the time, she served as his opening act. By the end of the year, she was his wife.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have a unique way of looking at their 26 years of marriage

McGraw and Hill remain together to this day and share three daughters. For those looking for advice on forging a long-lasting relationship, McGraw doesn’t have any per se, noting, “I don’t know if there’s a key,” adding, “We always say we’re 27 years coming up, we always say it’s like 96 in show business. It’s almost like dog years”

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But whatever they’re doing has worked so far, so here’s what he says: “We just made a commitment early on, when we first decided we were going to get married and have kids, that we wouldn’t just walk out the door when problems arose.”

Hill and McGraw had a divisive start to what would become 26 years of marriage

The two were smitten right from the start, as Hill recalls, admitting to PEOPLE, “We were young and silly and goo-goo-eyed in love.” But since the two were, at the time, with other people, first they had to break it off with their respective significant other. That alone was cause for a stir.

In response, Hill has defended, “If someone is going to judge my character because I was engaged to somebody and then I left him for somebody else — ‘Oh, OK, now she’s a slut and a bad person’ — I can’t control that. But I wasn’t about to let Tim slip through my hands.”

On June 26, 1996, the two found themselves in a dressing room for McGraw’s tour. “I joked around with her about getting married,” McGraw shared. “And so I looked at her, grabbed her by the hands, and dropped forward [on my knees] onstage. 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.'”

After that, he went out to perform. When he returned, she had written her answer in Sharpie and lipstick: “Yes! I’m gonna be your wife.”

Here’s to 26 – soon to be 27 and many more – years of marriage, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill!

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