Miranda Lambert + Brendan McLoughlin Started as ‘Pen Pals’

Fans already know that Miranda Lambert loves old-school snail mail — she’s got a habit of teasing new album projects by mailing out physical postcards — and it seems that writing letters once played a key role in her love life, too.

On a new episode of Bunnie Xo‘s Dumb Blonde podcast, the singer drops details on her early courtship with her husband Brendan McLoughlin.

Lambert has already shared that they met on the set of Good Morning America, where she and her band the Pistol Annies were there to promote their Interstate Gospel album. She’s also shared that her band mate Angaleena Presley spotted McLoughlin first, pointing out the “hot cop” to Lambert.

But in conversation with Bunnie, Lambert reveals some of the other details of their first meeting — including the fact that her team offered McLoughlin one ticket to her show last night.

“No plus one. He came by himself,” she says with a laugh. “We met up after, hung out and talked, and there wasn’t an agenda, really…he was super cool and we just talked and kept in touch.”

Lambert suggested to McLoughlin that they stay connected the old-fashioned way. “We wrote each other literal letters, like, old-school,” she says. “I was like, ‘Do you wanna be pen pals?’ He was like, ‘Letters with a pen?’…He’s eight years younger, so that was really mind-blowing to him.”

Lambert and McLoughlin’s love story is an unlikely one. Not only is there a mild age gap between the two, but they also hail from very different parts of the country: Lambert is a native of small-town Texas, while McLoughlin comes from New York City’s Staten Island. But the singer says that as they got to know each other, they realized they had quite a few similarities, too.

“He’s from a law enforcement and first responder family,” she continues. “Our attitudes sort of, like, they aligned. And he’s someone in my life that’s not a ‘yes’ person.”

As one of country music’s biggest stars, who spends most of her life in the public eye, that trait is a big deal to Lambert. “I don’t believe in surrounding yourself with ‘yes’ people at all and I don’t do that. I don’t think it’s healthy, mentally,” she explains.

“Brendan’s just very honest, and he’s a harsh New Yorker, and I like that because he just tells it like it is,” Lambert continues. “He doesn’t sugarcoat. He calls me on my s–t.”

Lambert and McLoughlin got married in 2019, just a few months after they met. The singer kept their relationship private until after they tied the knot, eventually sharing the news with fans that February.

The Dumb Blonde podcast episode featuring Lambert will be available in full on Monday (Aug. 19.)

Carena Liptak is an Associate Editor and staff writer at Taste of Country. She specializes in breaking country music news, interviews and lists. In particular, she’s got a soft spot for sad songs — check out her roundup of the 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time!