Trisha Yearwood Shares Secret to Successful Marriage With Garth Brooks

When Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood tied the knot in 2005, Brooks had yet to come out of retirement, and Yearwood was still seven years away from starting her award-winning Trisha’s Southern Kitchen cooking show on the Food Network. Much has changed in their professional lives over the last 14 years, but Yearwood says the secret to making their marriage work amidst the busyness of it all is really quite simple.

“You have to make it a conscious effort to make sure that you put each other first, and we do that, and sometimes it’s not easy,” Yearwood told Good Morning America. “We have to compromise, and that’s really what it’s about. We’re friends at the end of the day, and we enjoy each other’s company and like being together.”

The couple host Thanksgiving at their home, but travel to see their extended family over the Christmas holiday.

“I have family in Georgia, and we have family in Oklahoma, so it’s kind of a progressive Christmas where go to everybody and see everybody,” Yearwood said. “It’s a lot more quiet.”

One tradition Yearwood insists on is waiting until Brooks’ three daughters are around to help them decorate the tree, even if that means waiting until closer to Christmas to finish the task.

“The only thing we really do as a family that we have to do is … we decorate the tree together,” Yearwood revealed. “Now that they’re grown and living in different places, we still make it that the tree doesn’t get decorated until we’re together. So, it might go up and be bare for a week or two until we can get everybody together, and we’ll make sure to do that.”

The 55-year-old also took the couple’s rescue dog, Millie, hiking over the Christmas break, although that didn’t go quite as planned, with Millie unexpectedly requiring a visit to the vet after injuring herself on their walk.

“Millie gave herself a pedicure on the trail today,” Yearwood posted on Instagram. “She was a rock star at the vet! She is minus a toenail but please act casual about it so she doesn’t feel self conscious.”

Yearwood is back at radio with “Every Girl in This Town,” from her latest album, Every Girl.

Photo Credit: Getty / John Shearer