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Brad Paisley has been married to his wife Kimberly Williams since 2003. The country star credits Williams with making him a better man, and has been the inspiration behind several of his songs. “My wife makes me better,” he told Us Weekly. “She does a good job of telling me how to have perspective.”
Paisley and Williams have two sons together; Huck, 12, and Jasper, 10. Read on to learn about Williams’ film career, how she met Paisley, and how they have maintained a happy marriage for nearly two decades.
Here’s what you need to know about Kimberly Williams Paisley:
1. Williams Is an Actress Who Starred In 1991’s ‘Father of the Bride’
Williams is best known for her acting career. She made her screen debut in the 1991 comedy Father of the Bride, and the film proved to be a critical and commercial success. Williams got a chance to play the daughter to stars like Steve Martin and Diane Keaton, and she reprised her role in the 1995 sequel Father of the Bride Part II.
Williams starred in several other films during this period, including 1993’s Indian Summer, 1995’s Coldblooded, and 1996’s The War at Home, where she acted opposite Kathy Bates and Emilio Estevez. She transitioned to television in the 2000s, and earned critical acclaim for her performance in the short-lived drama series Relativity.
Williams has continued to act on film and television. She had a lengthy stint on the ABC sitcom According to Jim, where she played opposite Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith. She was a main cast member from 2001 to 2008, and she returned for the show’s final episode in 2009. More recently, Williams landed a recurring part on the ABC drama Nashville, and a supporting part in the 2015 comedy Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
2. Williams & Paisley Met After She Agreed to Star In His Music Video
Paisley was 19 years old when he took a date to go see Father of the Bride in theaters. He was instantly taken with Williams’ performance, and he later told Good Housekeeping that he had a hard time forgetting her. “I thought, She seems like a great girl—smart and funny and all those things that are so hard to find,” he recalled.
Paisley released the single “I’m Gonna Miss Her” in 1999, and since Williams was still on his mind, he decided to reach out to her to see if she would star in the music video. “It felt natural to ask her to be in it,” he said. “Even though I didn’t know if she was married, divorced, or just out of rehab.” Williams agreed, and they began dating in 2001.
Paisley said he wanted to make it clear that he was interested from their first date. “I really said to myself, This time I’m not going to play games,” he recalled. “I’m not going to pretend I’m somebody else, or do things I won’t be proud of later. I didn’t use my evil powers!” Williams joked that it took some time for her to warm up to Paisley. “He stalked me. That’s the long and the short of it,” she told CBS’ Sunday Morning. “He says it was love at first sight for him, and for me it was more like love at first month or two.”
3. Williams & Paisley Married at Pepperdine University Campus In 2003
Paisley proposed to Williams six months after their first date. He proposed while they were going for a walk on the Venice Beach pier. “He proposed right in front of the public toilets,” she jokingly recalled. Paisley and Williams married in 2003 on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Paisley credits his sense of humor for winning Williams over. “The only reason I won her over, I think, was my sense of humor,” he told People. “I can make her laugh really easily. She doesn’t let me get away with something that’s half funny. She’s a great barometer.”
The couple decided to renew their vows in 2015. “We did a really, really campy wedding vow renewal ceremony. It was awesome,” Williams told Us Weekly. “We had a traditional wedding march… our processional walk. It was very casual and very campy and silly. It was perfect. You could see my pink panties underneath [the dress]. One of my best friend’s went and bought it for me. It was a surprise, I didn’t know we were doing it.”
4. The Couple Have 2 Sons Named Huck & Jasper Paisley
Williams and Paisley have two children together; Huck (born 2007) and Jasper (born 2011). Paisley told the Boot that Huck’s first name is William, but everyone calls him by his middle name. “When we picked William as the first name of Huck — which by the way no one calls him — that was such a strong and classic name, of course they said, ‘We love it!'”, he said. “But we didn’t tell them the middle name and then we said, ‘By the way, Huckleberry is the middle name.’ They wanted to kill us!”
Paisley also revealed that his wife had a dream of a son named Jasper well before she became pregnant. “My wife had a dream that we had a little boy and named him Jasper. This was before she was pregnant,” he revealed. “We kept thinking about that, and when we found out it was a boy, we toyed with that idea all the way until we were in the hospital. Then after he was born, we started running it up the flagpole and in spite of what the flagpoles thought, we did it!”
Paisley says that his sons often weigh in on his albums. “Huck and Jasper are great critics. They have a very good perspective and they know what they like. They don’t like ballads,” he told Billboard. “When I first made the loop for ‘Riverbank’ and cut a little vocal and listened to it in the kitchen as a demo, Huck came running in and went, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘That’s something I’m working on.’ And he said, ‘That doesn’t sound like you.'”
5. Williams Has Been the Inspiration Behind Several of Paisley’s Love Songs
Paisley told Good Housekeeping that his marriage to Williams has inspired him to explore different songwriting avenues. “I have more to write about now. Before, I had nothing to write about but failed relationships and life on the road,” he admitted. “Now, I feel emotions more deeply in every sense. When you feel that kind of love — love for Kim. It even makes for better songs.”
Paisley wrote the song “My Miracle” as a dedication to Williams. Lyrics for the song include:
I wasn’t always spiritual / Oh but one thing that’s for sure / How could I not have faith / In the God that created her.
Paisley recounted the songwriting process during an interview with Taste of Country. “I can be a little ornery when it comes to writing love songs. I don’t typically put it all out there, but in this one I did,” he explained. “This is the most powerful statement I think I can make. The one I wrote it for Kimberly Williams-Paisley, she is my worst critic typically, but in this case I think I got it right.”
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