Thomas Rhett Reflects on the First Time He Saw Daughter Willa Gray: 'I'll Never Forget It'
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The country singer shares his four daughters with wife Lauren Akins
Thomas Rhett is reflecting on the first time he saw his oldest daughter.
While appearing on an episode of Kevin Bacon's podcast Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, the country singer, 33, reminisced on seeing his daughter Willa Gray, 7, for the very first time.
"I've always thought my wife is the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life, but there was something about this picture that she was like, glowing man," Thomas Rhett shared, referencing a picture of his wife Lauren Akins, 33, at an orphanage in Uganda, holding a baby.
"And so was this baby, who I'd never met before, and I remember FaceTiming her that night and saying, 'Who was that baby that you were holding?' And she said well, 'This is Blessing and there are no living parents or living residents, so she has no family."
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"She's been at this children's home now and she, her name is Willa Gray but her name was Blessing at the orphanage. And she had been there for like a week. She was 6 weeks old," the girl dad continued.
"And my wife was just talking to me, like 'We have to find a home for this child.' And I'll never forget it dude, it was 2 o'clock in the morning where I was, half asleep, and it just kind of blurted out of my mouth. 'We're going to bring her home.'"
"And I don't even remember saying it, I don't even know if I was ready to have kids yet. I was really loving the road thing, my career was just starting to take off, I was like, 'Man if we have kids right now, what is that gonna do?' And I'll never forget those words coming out of my mouth," he told Bacon.
Thomas Rhett and his wife share four daughters together — Lillie Carolina, 22 months, Lennon Love, 3, Ada James, 5, and Willa Gray.
The musician has said that his daughters have influenced his music over the years, but his kids played a bigger role in his sixth studio album Where We Started by helping him finish the record.
"I was alone with my thoughts in 2020 and wrote a lot of songs, just me and the guitar and I wanted to write some more things that made my kids smile and made my kids want to dance," Thomas Rhett told PEOPLE of the album's inspiration.
"I started playing the record and I kept taking notes of the ones they wanted to listen to over and over again. There were five or six on there that now when we get in the car, my 2-year-old will be like, 'Play daddy song, daddy song,' " he continued. "And if it's not one of those six, even if it's an older song of mine or a newer one, those are the only six that she cares about. So those made it on the record for sure."
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