Jimmie Allen and Alexis Gale Secretly Got Married in 2020

Jimmie Allen and wife Alexis Gale celebrated their wedding with friends and family in May 2021, but the pair had actually gotten married almost one year prior. In a new interview with PEOPLE, the couple revealed that they've been Mr. and Mrs. for around 14 months at this point.

"We haven't officially announced this, but we've actually been married for a year," Gale said. "We got married on his birthday — June 18 — last year. Actually being publicly Mr. and Mrs. has been really exciting! I thought it was going to be the same, but I feel like it's a new honeymoon stage for us. We get to wear our rings out in public."

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Allen noted that he had never wanted to get married until he met his wife. "I wanted to be a dad and do music, that's it," he said. "I never wanted to get married. The whole husband thing was not something I ever wanted to do. But Alexis changed that. Now, I like it. It gives me some security — she can't just be like, 'I'm done.' Divorce is a lot of paperwork!"

The "Best Shot" singer and Gale, a nurse, were introduced by his cousin's wife after Allen had done "the whole creeper thing" on Facebook. "We were at my cousin's house — I was hanging out and she came downstairs. She just got off work, had her little scrubs on, being a nurse," he recalled. "I had this whole thing put together that I was going to say. Smooth Jimmie was ready, but he didn't show up. I ain't say nothing. I just looked at her, said 'Hi,' then put my head down and kept talking to my cousin. Finally when we were leaving, I grabbed her phone and said, 'This your phone?'"

Shortly after that, Gale was graduating and had to study for her NCLEX to officially become a nurse. "[Allen] took the time, right before he went on tour, to study with me even though he had no idea what he was doing," she said. "And it made me realize — this is someone who really cares about me, who cares about my future even though he's still working on his."

Allen also got a stamp of approval on Gale from his father, James Allen, just before he died in late 2019. "Before my dad died, he was in the hospital," the singer said. "Lex came and she met my dad, and he liked her. He pulled me to the side and said, 'Listen, you mess up a lot when it comes to relationships. Don't let this one go.' I said, 'All right.'"

Allen is dad to 7-year-old son Aadyn from a previous marriage, and he and Gale welcomed their daughter Naomi Bettie in March 2020. Gale is currently pregnant with the couple's second daughter, and Allen shared that he is "excited about having a girl because that's like nine more years of Disney princesses!" "I'm obsessed with Disney World," he said. "I've always wanted to go inside a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I am hype!"