Learn All About Country Star Luke Combs' Wife, Their 'Beautiful Crazy' Relationship and Newborn Son
And baby makes three.
There’s no question Luke Combs is a music man. In high school, he performed a solo at Carnegie Hall as part of his school’s chorus group. His first country song, "Hurricane" raced to the top of the Country Radio Airplay chart soon after he signed a record deal, and when he released his debut album, This One's for You, in 2017, it went to No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200. And success has followed him ever since.
The 32-year-old has multi-platinum albums, two Grammy nominations and nine Country Music Association Awards (CMAs). At the 2022 CMAs, he took home three awards Entertainer of the Year and Album of Year ( in both artist and producer categories). All this success probably makes producers at the reality singing competition The Voice feel bad; they reportedly rejected Combs because he wasn’t “interesting.”
That didn’t deter him, though. "It gave me a lot of confidence because I was good enough voice-wise to make it through all those producer auditions," he once said. Voice coach Blake Shelton, who never even saw Combs at the time, said of the show’s decision, "There's no way around it, it's embarrassing... Luke told me that he kept his rejection letter… he said he put that in his dorm room in college and he hung it on the wall to push him on, something to fight for. I don't know if he still has that letter or not, but if he does, I think he should frame it and put it next to his first triple-platinum album that he has.”
Know who knew a good thing when they saw him? Combs’ wife, Nicole Hocking. And now that good thing they've got going is something great—with the arrivals of their first child, Tex Lawrence, on June 19, 2022! Keep reading to find out more about Luke Combs' wife, Nicole Hocking—who he loves so much that he even wrote a trilogy song set about her and their relationship—and their future family.
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Is Luke Combs married?
Yes! He’s married to 30-year-old Nicole Hocking.
What is Nicole Hocking famous for?
While she’s not a celeb herself, Hocking was the one with the big career when she and Combs met. In fact, she holds a degree in civil engineering from Florida Coast University (she’s a Sunshine State native who grew up in Fort Myers). She currently works as a recruiting coordinator at Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), still working in the field where she met her husband years ago.
How long did Luke Combs know his wife?
Combs readily admits to “dating up” when he got involved with Hocking. They’d met casually through mutual friends, but they were both seeing other people in the beginning. Soon, of course, they found themselves both single and Combs started feeling a certain way toward the blonde.
According to Combs, he wrote the first song in the trilogy about his wife, “Beautiful Crazy,” before they even started dating officially; they’d just been on a few outings together."I'm not much of a ladies' man," he said. "But I was pretty proud of this one. I had written it, maybe two days before [I played it for her]."
A friend of Hocking’s was present when Combs first played the song for her, and he thought he’d get some points for sure. "One of her friends was over there. I was like, 'Well, this is perfect.' Because if I play it while the friend is over, there's no way the friend is going to not think this is the sweetest thing that anyone's ever done for someone. So, I played the song when the friend was over there. Of course, her friend was like, 'Oh my God, it's so sweet.'"
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Combs and Hocking officially started dating in 2016, during a singer-songwriter festival in Key West, Florida, in February. Hocking saw him walking alone on the street, and she was gracious enough to ask him to spend time with her and her friends. “I was just like, ‘Hey, come hang out with us. Why are you by yourself?'” Hocking recalled in 2020, while Combs admitted in the same interview, “I looked bad, too. I was wearing camo gym shorts from Walmart. Classy, classy stuff. And like the oldest t-shirt I owned.”
No one thought a relationship between them would fly, since at the time he had no career to speak of. "Everybody was like, 'Yeah, this is never gonna work,'" Combs once said, "and so I didn't have anything when we met."
However, when his career did take off, Hocking went from working all the time to joining her beau on the road. “I stayed home for two years pretty much as his career was growing and growing and I wanted to be there for all those first moments,” Hocking said.
When did Luke Combs get engaged?
Combs finally proposed to Hocking at home in their kitchen in November 2018; it wasn’t a glamorous affair. The pair were moving into their new house and he had a romantic plan that didn’t go according to schedule because of their cats’ reaction to the move. They were throwing up and urinating, needing to be bathed all day; as Combs later explained, “They’re all stressed out because we’re at some strange house with a bunch of people and stuff."
The day became more and more stressful. “It’s a very heated moment,” Combs recalled, while Hocking remembered, “He’s getting mad at me, I’m getting mad at him." Knowing Hocking's parents would be arriving the next day, and having already told them the news, he didn’t back down. “He was like, ‘I got these new collars for the cats with the new address on it and oh, I also got you this,'” Hocking laughed, referring to her engagement ring. “He pulls it out, got down on one knee, does the whole thing. I blacked out, I don’t remember this. I was like ‘my ears are hot, what’s going on?’”
Combs broke the news to the public on Instagram when he posted a pic of the couple in Maui, Hawaii. "She said yes a while ago but this is a way better place to take pictures than the kitchen. Can’t wait to spend forever with you...I Love You! #Mahalo" the country singer wrote.
Hocking likewise took to Instagram to say how proud she was that her man picked a great ring on his own. "I always said if I was to ever get married, I didn't want to pick out the ring or go ring shopping. I wanted it to be something that when he saw it, he knew that it was the one, and boy did he outdo himself," she wrote beneath a picture of her wearing the ring. "I never thought a ring could mean so much to me. I love you Luke Albert Combs, I’m going to marry the hell outta you."
When did Luke Combs get married?
Despite the threat of a looming hurricane (which was, perhaps, fitting for the singer considering the title of his first hit), the couple finally married on Aug. 1, 2020. They had to cut most of the wedding guests because of COVID-19 protocols, but it was still a happy day. "Yesterday was the best day of my life. I got to marry my best friend," Combs wrote on social media with a photo of the happy couple. "Here's to forever."
Hocking also posted online, “Yesterday was the most special day!! I’m so happy to spend the rest of my life with you! Although we wish would could have had every single one of our family and friends there, we can’t wait to celebrate with everyone next year!
Combs admitted he cried during the big day. “It was heavy, in the best way,” he said. “I didn't know I was gonna cry that much,” Combs added, “but I did, I did. I was like doubled-over crying guy.” Their first dance was a slow one to “Beautiful Crazy,” and his official video for “Forever After All” shares some moments from their big day.
A month later, Combs wrote a song called “Without You”, which is clearly about his new wife. As he croons in the tune, "Sure it's me behind this mic stand / And it's me strumming this Gibson / And it's me they love to give the credit to / I'm just trying to give the credit where credit's due / 'Cause me don't mean a thing without you." He also released the next songs in his musical trilogy about his wife, “Better Together,” and “Forever After All,” in 2020.
Does Luke Combs have a child?
Yes! Luke and Nicole welcomed their first child, a son named Tex Lawrence on June 19, 2022.
"This is what my days at home look like now," Luke shared on Instagram. "Couldn’t be happier about that. Been amazing getting to spend time with @nicolejcombs and little Tex."
On Jan. 20, Combs had revealed on social media that Hocking was pregnant with their first child.
"Here we go y’all!" he wrote alongside pics that show them showing off a sonogram—and Hocking's baby bump. He also revealed that their first child will be a boy, referring to their future kid as "Lil dude Combs" and noting that the baby is due sometime in the spring of 2022.
Combs added, "Couldn’t be more excited to start a family with this babe. It’s gonna be a hell of a ride."
How is Luke Combs adjusting to married life?
Being newly married in the middle of a pandemic has to put a strain on a relationship, right? Not according to Hocking. “We have spent so much time together just this past year,” Hocking said in early 2021. “In the beginning of our relationship, we really didn’t get to do that. I worked a full-time job, and he was on the road full-time. I’d see him maybe twice a week. The year before we got married and then of course, this year, we got to spend basically every day together. It’s solidified that, obviously we’re great together. And we can make it through a lot.”
Whatever happens, the two are in it together. "They say nothing lasts forever, but they ain't seen us together," Combs sings in “Forever After All.” “And I know there'll be that moment the good Lord calls one of us home and one won’t have the other by their side. But heaven known that won’t last too long. Maybe some things last forever after all.”