Thomas Rhet t's wife, Lauren Akins, is getting candid about the early stages of starting a family with the singer as his music career progressed.
In a new video titled, Lauren Akins: This Wasn't the Plan , Lauren recalled her and Thomas' journey with faith, and their decision to adopt their oldest daughter, Willa Gray, 8. Lauren, 34, married Thomas in 2012. The decision to start their family came after Lauren attended a mission trip to Uganda, and met her daughter when she was five months old.
"I was FaceTiming my husband later that night, and I said, 'I feel called to help her find her forever home. Wherever that looks like,'" she recalled telling her husband. "And we know so many people who, back in the States were looking to adopt."
She continued, "He looked at me and he was like, 'We'll do it.'"
Lauren recalled the "intense" 13-month period following her and Thomas' decision to adopt Willa and bring her home to the United States, as she was doing a lot of it alone while the "Overdrive" singer was on the road.
At the same time, Lauren found out she was pregnant, which added another layer of challenges.
"I was getting sick and throwing up like 50-something times a day," she said. "The whole time I was missing my husband. I started to resent him a little bit because he was back in America touring."
Lauren revealed that she was "hanging on by a thread" as she was pregnant in Africa working on the complicated adoption process by herself and worried about the idea of leaving her daughter in Africa to take care of the baby she was pregnant with in America.
"So we made the decision for me to come back and get the care I needed, because I was so sick," she said. "And so my mom and my dad flew over and they were actually the ones that got to bring Willa Gray home."
Shortly after Willa's arrival, Lauren gave birth to their second child, Ada James, 6.
"Three months to the day that she came home, I went into the hospital to deliver Ada James," she said. "It kinda felt like we went from zero to two pretty quick as parents."
Lauren said more challenges came in her and Thomas' marriage as she began to tour with him with two little kids.
"His life went on, and I feel like mine stopped," she revealed. "And I felt like we weren't doing it together anymore. I feel like there was a lot of miscommunication, there was a lot of resentment I was holding on to even through the adoption and after. I just hit a breaking point. I didn't like him and I resented him. I remember looking at him in the closet, after we had just screamed at each other and I said, 'I hate you. I hate you. I feel lost and I hate that you put your career, and I hate the pressure that it puts on us, and I hate that we brought two little girls into this.'"
Lauren recalled the country singer asking her if she wanted him to quit his job. She revealed that they overcame the challenges with a counseling session. In 2020, the pair had their third child, Lennon Love, 4, and she felt they were "cruising," and she got pregnant again.
After welcoming their fourth child, Lillie Carolina, 2, Lauren said that she experienced postpartum after-effects.
"I struggled with postpartum depression," she said.
While she battled postpartum, she credits her husband for stepping up and raising their children. Lauren said after taking care of her body physically and mentally, she began to feel better and could walk up the stairs to put her daughters to bed, and it wasn't on her husband for the first time in months.
Lauren revealed that her and Thomas' fourth daughter was the baby that completed their family, and brought everyone happiness.
"Lillie has consistently been the most easygoing, full-of-joy-in-life child," Lauren said. "I mean, I look at her daily and think, I cannot believe I almost missed you. She's such a gift to my heart and to her sisters Lennon, Willa Gray, Ada James."
In June, Thomas spoke to ET and revealed that his upcoming album, About a Woman , was inspired by his girls.
"I started this record last April with the mission of making my kids want to be able to dance -- not that they haven't on my last records, but they like to skip the ballads," he joked. "We put one ballad on this project, which is like five less than I normally have ever done."
Thomas said his oldest daughter gave it her seal of approval -- in an unconventional way.
"She said it slaps," he told ET. about Willa's review. "I was like, 'Where did you hear that?' ... I guess slaps mean that it just has a good beat. I really don't know, but I received it." The father of four added that his outlook on About a Woman is that it will have "slappers, bangers only."
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