Heavy/ABC/Getty 2023 third place "American Idol" contestant Colin Stough is dating a former beauty pageant winner
Nineteen-year-old singer Colin Stough may not have won “American Idol” in 2023, but since coming in third place behind winner Iam Tongi and runner-up Megan Danielle, he’s definitely felt like a winner.
In less than a year, the Mississippi native went from working as an HVAC technician fresh out of high school to getting to “wake up and live the dream” each day, he recently told Philadelphia’s ABC6.
Stough is now a Nashville-based southern rocker with a record deal and new music on the way. In addition to his professional success, Stough has also found love with McKenzie Rhett, 20, who was crowned Miss Jr. Teen Mississippi in 2019.
Though Stough has said very little about his romance with Rhett, she has frequently shared photos and videos with him on her social media accounts since September 2023, often accompanying him on the road.
Here’s what you need to know:
Colin Stough’s Girlfriend Has Shared Lots of Photos & Videos of Them Together
Though it’s not clear how Stough and Rhett first connected, she made it clear in a post on September 10 that she’d been traveling with the rising star, posting photos of them together in Louisa, Kentucky. Stough was there to perform at Septemberfest, just before 2022 “Idol” winner Noah Thompson — a native of Louisa — took the stage.
Rhett posted two photos of herself cozying up to Stough offstage, including one in which he was kissing her cheek and another with her hand on his chest.
Rhett captioned the post, “been to a concert or two lately ❤️🤘🏽”
On October 29, she shared two black and white photos of her and Stough riding his motorcycle in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Rhett captioned the post by writing “midnight rider 🖤” and Stough replied, “Lova♠️❤️”
She also accompanied the singer to New York in late November, as seen in photos she posted on Instagram. And on December 29, she posted more photos from a black tie event at the Greenville Country Club in Greenville, Mississippi, with her dressed in a white gown and Stough in a tuxedo.
When someone asked if they’d gotten married, Rhett replied, “noooo”
Stough has shared very little about Rhett on his social media accounts, other than posting a photo on his personal Facebook account of them together at the Grand Ole Opry in November 2023.
But he repeatedly referred to Rhett as his girlfriend, calling her “Kenzie” for short, during an Instagram Live session on the night of January 12, 2024, as he talked about how she’s tried to teach him to be better at interacting with his fans.
“Okay, so I’m gonna be real as hell y’all,” he said “My girlfriend gets onto me for it all the time. I don’t know if it’s just out of habit, but I’m a normal kind of human being, so when people come up and talk to me and they’re like, ‘Hey man, what’s up?’ I’m like, ‘What’s up’ and it just kind of stays there. I haven’t like, figured out how to, I guess, talk (to fans). I don’t try to be an a**hole…but it’s just weird.”
Stough said he has had multiple experiences where people will say hello at various public places and he doesn’t realize until later that it was because they recognized him and likely wanted to talk.
He said, “I tell my girlfriend all the time, ‘I feel like absolute sh*t because I didn’t realize that.'”
Rhett appears to travel back and forth between Mississippi and Tennessee, periodically sharing TikTok videos from time spent with Stough. On the night of January 15, amid a winter storm in Nashville, she posted two videos of them goofing around in the snow.
“First snow day together,” she captioned one video of Stough skateboarding in a store and then comically trying to snowboard outside.
Stough also posted videos that night in his Instagram Stories of himself at the store with his skateboard as well as doing donuts in a slick parking lot while he drove a white SUV. The footage had Rhett’s TikTok logo on them, but she didn’t appear in any of the videos he shared to his account.
Who is Colin Stough’s Girlfriend, McKenzie Rhett?
When Rhett was crowned Miss Jr. Teen Mississippi in March 2019, she was 16 and a sophomore at Heritage Academy, a private college prep school in Columbus, where she was on the fast pitch softball team, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Her pageant platform was diabetes awareness, per the United States National Pageants website. She visited schools and daycares to teach kids about making healthy choices during her reign.
According to Pageant Planet, Rhett was born in March 2003. With her 21st birthday right around the corner, she is a year older than Stough, who was born in July 2004.
It’s not clear if Rhett went to post-secondary school after her high school graduation, but in August 2023, she posted on Facebook that she was available to for hair and makeup appointments for high school students attending homecoming in the fall.
Stough has a record deal with BBR and 19 Entertainment, the same labels that sign contracts with each “Idol” winner. He has told fans that he has a busy year ahead and hopes to have a new album coming out in 2024.
In a recent photo he posted of himself with his band, he wrote, “Hope y’all are ready for next year we’re gonna shake some stuff up”
To kick things off in early January, he released an acoustic version of his single “I Still Talk to Jesus,” which he first performed on “Idol” last spring.