Dwight Yoakam Announces Marriage to Longtime Fiancee Emily Joyce

Congratulations are in order for Dwight Yoakam! The country star confirmed in a statement on Monday that he and longtime fiancée Emily Joyce have officially tied the knot in a wedding that took place before the coronavirus pandemic spread to the United States. “Dwight Yoakam and Emily Joyce were married in March just prior to the quarantine in a private ceremony at St Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica,” the statement read, via Nash Country Daily.

The statement shares that Yoakam and Joyce began dating in 2010 and were engaged “for several years.” “At a time when there is so much uncertainty in the world, there are still happy moments,” the message continued. “In the face of shutdowns and social-distancing requirements, love prevailed, and the less than 10 attendees were seated at least six feet from one another. This belated announcement was withheld out of respect to so many people affected by and on the front lines of this pandemic.”

Yoakam has been in the music business for over 30 years and has largely kept his personal life private, though he was linked to actresses Sharon Stone and Bridget Fonda and dated Wynonna Judd while he and the Judds were on tour together. Yoakam has sold over 25 million albums, earned five Billboard No. 1 albums, has been nominated for 21 Grammy Awards and is the most frequent musical guest in the history of The Tonight Show. He has also appeared in a number of films and television shows.

“You know, art is a seed,” Yoakam recently told GQ. “And some things are quick-growing, fast-bearing of fruit, and other plants are a slow growth, but they’ll become the redwood forest, the sequoias, or the aspen. The aspen forest — maybe the largest singular living organism on the planet. That’s just different. And that’s not to dismiss bamboo. Bamboo has its own majesty, you know? But don’t dismiss the thing that takes longer to germinate. Mountains are not, in fact, grown overnight. But a million and a half years later, Wow, y’know? That range is pretty spectacular to visit.”