Country singer Miranda Lambert‘s husband, Brendan McLoughlin, is officially no longer a New York City Police Department officer. McLoughlin retired from the force and is now reportedly handling the singer’s security. After Lambert and McLoughlin secretly married last year, he took a leave of absence from the NYPD.
“His current duty status is retired,” Sergeant Jessica McRorie, an NYPD DCPI spokesperson, told Fox News Friday.
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McLoughlin retired from the force earlier this month. He had been on a leave of absence since last summer and is working as a member of Lambert’s security team, multiple sources told Fox News. Eyewitnesses also told the outlet McLoughlin was working security at Lambert’s meet-and-greets at venues during her most recent shows. One witness said McLoughlin was overseeing lines of fans and checking bags at Lambert’s Feb. 7 concert in Tusla, Oklahoma.
“Brendan was the security guard right before you go in to meet Miranda for her meet and greet,” the eyewitness told Fox News. “Other members of the security team told fans, ‘No photos with Brendan.’”
“Brendan was one of the security guys checking fans and when it was your turn it was actually Brendan asking if fans had anything they wanted Miranda to sign,” one source at Lambert’s show in Dallas said. “Brendan was overheard telling one fan, ‘Have her sign your boot!’”
“Brendan wears a lanyard representing he’s on Miranda’s team and he even wears a little earpiece,” the source continued.
Lambert and McLoughlin secretly married in January 2019, but did not announce the nuptials publicly until Valentine’s Day 2019. The couple marked their one-year anniversary on Jan. 26, with Lambert sharing another photo from their wedding.
“1 year [heart],” she wrote. “I’m so happy to walk through this life with you. Thank you Brendan for making me the proudest wife and stepmom. You are the reason for all my new smile lines. I love you.”
Lambert’s marriage to McLoughlin was an even bigger shocker is that fans did not know who McLoughlin was. The two met when Lambert performed on Good Morning America in late 2018 with her Pistol Annies bandmates Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe.
“We did GMA, it was my first time to do morning TV in like five years, because it’s morning television,” Lambert said on The View in November 2019. “I’m a singer. I’m like, ‘It’s harsh.’ But I did, and the girls spotted him and invited him to our show. He’s beautiful. He’s a cutie. The girls kind of invited him, the girls and my security guy Tom, invited him behind my back to my show. I don’t really have game, so I was really nervous. It worked out.”
Lambert said their marriage has been “awesome,” partly because McLoughlin helped her embrace New York City.
“I’ve been [in New York City] several times over the past decade for work, but I never just came to New York to disappear in the city and have fun and be a part of it,” she explained. “I’ve learned to embrace it. I think it creeped into my art a little bit too, which is what I was hoping.”
Lambert’s latest single, “Bluebird,” was written three days after the wedding, so her co-writers Luke Dick and Natalie Hemby were among the first to learn about her nuptials.
“I’m a Scorpio, and I’m a woman, so that equals emotion,” Lambert told Billboard of writing the song. “If you’re in the room with musicians and you’re putting down this track of a song that you love dearly, you’re going to sing like [the room feels]. But if you’re running in there at 2:30 and you’re like, ‘I have an hour before my next interview, I’m going to get this vocal,’ it just doesn’t work for me, you know. I have to be put into place. I guess it’s almost like an actress being put in her role at the time. Like it’s hard to snap in and out.”
Lambert’s next stop on her Wildcard tour is on March 2 in Denver. She is taking most of March and April off before she hits the road again on April 23, beginning with a stop in Boise, Idaho.
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