All About Little Big Town's Kimberly Schlapman's Husband & Kids
Kimberly Schlapman is a mother, chef, and of course, founding member of country supergroup Little Big Town.
Little Big Town is more than a band. It's a family. The four-person supergroup, hosts of Little Big Town's Christmas at the Opry on NBC, have been together through life's ups and downs, including the personal hardships faced by singer Kimberly Schlapman. Here, read all about Schlapman's journey, and the happy ending she finally found.
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Kimberly Schlapman grew up in Georgia
Schlapman was born in Cornelia, Georgia in 1969 and moved to Alabama for college, where she met future bandmate Karen Fairchild. The women moved to Nashville together to pursue their singing careers, and Little Big Town formed in 1998.
Kimberly Schlapman found love again after her first husband died
Her first husband, Steven Roads, died from a heart attack in 2005. Afterward, "I wasn't planning on falling in love, at all," Schlapman told The Boot in 2013. "My husband now and I were just really good friends, and after my late husband died, all my friends were calling me, all the time. Just checking up on me. [Stephen Schlapman] was just an old friend. We had known each other for about six years, and he started calling me just like everybody else did. But he started calling me more than everybody else did."
"I was shocked; I remember when I first realized that I was having feelings, I just thought, 'OK, this is so weird. What is this? I haven't felt this in a long, long time,'" Schlapman added. "But eventually I allowed myself, and it's been the most beautiful gift of my life. It pulled me out of the deepest hole that I've ever been in and healed me." The pair married in 2006.
Kimberly Schlapman's kids
“In my previous marriage, I had tried so hard to have a baby, so there was already, I don’t want to say skepticism, but I was already pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to conceive a child,” Schlapman revealed to People of her lifelong dream of motherhood. “When we got pregnant on our honeymoon, it was just the most incredible gift. I believe that my first husband, who was in heaven, I believe he begged God, ‘Let’s give her what she’s always wanted for a wedding gift.’ ”
Daisy Pearl Schlapman arrived in July 2007, and grew up begging for a sibling. But after a miscarriage, both artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization were unsuccessful, so the Schlapmans looked into adoption. Dolly Grace officially joined the family in 2017.
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"Instantly, when we held her, she was ours. I secretly feared my love for an adopted child wouldn't be the same for my biological child; I couldn't understand how that love could feel the same," Schlapman wrote in an essay for People. "But I'm telling you, when I held that baby in my arms, there was no difference whatsoever from the child that I birthed out of my own womb to this child, who came from another person's womb."
How the Schlapmans make it work
“My husband is amazing. He has given me the foundation to live out my dreams,” she revealed Country Living. “His life kind of revolves around my schedule and everything that’s going on with me, and unfortunately he takes a backseat.”
“His support of me, it’s kind of opposite of what the old social expectations were where the man goes to work and the mama stays at home. I am the one who has the business, and he is the one who is often Mr. Mom and taking care of everything,” she added. “I cannot praise him enough for what he’s done for me and our family.” They built their "forever home" in South Carolina.
Watch Little Big Town's Christmas at the Opry on NBC on Monday, December 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
