Lauren Akins Says Being in the Spotlight Is ‘Not My Vibe’

Thomas Rhett‘s wife, Lauren Akins, stepped further into the spotlight with the release of her book, Live in Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes, in August, though the mom of three admitted that’s not her favorite place to be. Speaking with Access, Akins shared that despite her husband’s fame, making her own way onto a public stage “is not my vibe.”

“I’m just being full candid here, I knew I was marrying into it with [Rhett], but my whole life, he has been in the center of the stage and always entertaining, even since we were in third grade, truly,” she said. “So I’m used to that for him. And I was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll just keep doing life like we always have.’ But slowly and surely over the last few years, I’ve kind of inched a little bit closer and gotten a little bit closer and now, this year feels like a lot of firsts for me.”

In addition to releasing her book, Akins served as a presenter during CMA Artists of the Year in 2019 and the CMA Awards in 2020 and co-hosted the annual CMA Country Christmas special with her husband in December. “Thankfully I’ve gotten to do most of them with him,” she said, “and everybody I’ve been able to work with and meet through book release and writing the book and book tour and CMA Country Christmas, now CMAs, and the Artist of the Year that I got to do, it’s all been… the country music community is just the best community in the whole world, so getting to do a lot of those firsts with this community has been amazing for me to get my toes wet with all of this.”

“And then having the best teacher in the world that I’m married to helps a lot too,” she continued. “It’s been nerve-wracking and it’s made me a little bit more anxious, but it’s been really good.”

The 31-year-old told The Tennessean that while she was excited for her book’s release, she was also “extremely anxious” about the reaction. “Some of it is, ‘Was this the right move?’” she said. “The state our world is in today, it’s so hard to say something and not to A. offend somebody or B. have your words twisted and come back at you in a negative light.”

Ultimately, she felt called to share her story in an effort to help others. “I’m living a life now that far exceeds my dreams as a child,” Akins said. “There may be some valleys I walk through with this book release, but I believe that he’s got a plan for all of it, and I’m just going to do what he asks.”