Ryan Hurd Says Wife Maren Morris ‘Deserves to Be Celebrated’ Instead of Just ‘Tolerated’

Maren Morris is building a bridge away from her country music roots — and her husband, Ryan Hurd, is standing by her side.

“She deserves to be celebrated, not just tolerated,” Hurd, 36, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, September 20, sharing the cover image of Morris’ EP The Bridge. "I love the response from people who don’t just love these two songs, they needed them. I knew it would strike a chord.”

Morris, 33, dropped two new songs — “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here”— earlier this month to introduce her musical genre shift.

“Most people would just shut up and keep collecting the paycheck because the wave of vitriol is real and it’s hard. I’m so sick of watching my wife get the s—t kicked out of her by the internet,” Hurd — who married Morris in 2018 — added on Wednesday. “I’m sick of every talking head having some kind of stupid opinion about what she says. It’s the same every time, why are you surprised when she calls out something racist or homophobic, I’m sick of people getting rewarded for it.”

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Morris has long been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, but her stance sparked drama in August 2022 when she called out fellow country singer Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, for making transphobic comments.

“It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie,” Morris tweeted that month, responding to Brittany’s comparison of a childhood “tomboy” phase to a person’s transition.

While Brittany, 35, continued to back her conservative beliefs, Morris doubled down on her allyship. She even earned the Excellence in Media Award at the GLAAD Media Awards in May for her activism, becoming the first country singer to earn the trophy.

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“Standing here being honored by GLAAD this evening doesn’t feel quite real or deserving to me yet,” Morris — who shares son Hayes, 3, with Hurd — gushed in her speech. “I first felt the acceptance of this community in my junior high school drama class. … During the school week, my queer friends were a safe space where I would go to theater class, and that entire period, we would laugh till our sides hurt, find our footing and freedom together completely unjudged. It was through their bold humor and compassion that I truly figured myself out in those formative years.”

Nearly four months later, Morris declared to the Los Angeles Times that she was leaving country music behind. Hurd praised the move as “beautiful” and “so rock and roll.”

“[Maren] deserves a little sunshine for the burden she has carried for every artist and fan that feels the same way. I can’t wait for that first tour and to see all of the smiling and beautiful people who needed these songs and also need HER,” he concluded on Wednesday. “I can’t wait to make music that follows the same path, whatever that is.”