Reclusive Country Star, 54, Gushes About Faith Hill: 'Most Kind and Most Generous'

Yahoo

3 days ago

has been a darling of country music since the early 1990s. She appears to have a picture-perfect life with husband and fellow major country star Tim McGraw and their three daughters, Gracie, 28, Maggie, 26, and Audrey, 23.
But what might be nice for fans to know is that Hill is just as kind as she appears.
On a Mother's Day post about Hill from youngest daughter Audrey, fellow country star Chely Wright, 54, made her true feelings known about Hill — and had nothing but wonderful things to say.
"@audreymcgraw, your mom has always been the nicest, sweetest, most kind and most generous person around. This video took me way back in time.❤️," wrote Wright on the undated video of Hill from approximately 1994.
Wright was a contemporary of Hill's in the 1990s, charting the hits "Shut Up and Drive," "Just Another Heartache," "It Was," "Single White Female" and "Jezebel," among others. But she was a closeted lesbian and was terrified that if she came out, she would be ostracized in country music.
So she had romantic relationships with such country stars as Vince Gill and Brad Paisley, both prior to their current marriages to Amy Grant and Kimberly Williams, respectively. In Wright's memoir, she writes about how in 2005, her friend and fellow country artist John Rich, told her that it wouldn't be OK to come out of the closet because "people don't approve of that deviant behavior" because "it's a sin."
Wright eventually came out of the closet publicly in 2010 after she left Nashville for New York City. After she came out, she received a plethora of support from female country stars, including Hill, Mary Chapin Carpenter, LeAnn Rimes, , the band SheDaisy and the late Naomi Judd.
Carpenter, Rimes and the sisters of SheDaisy supported her publicly; she told the Huffington Post that Hill, Yearwood and Judd all reached out privately after she came out. She said no male country stars made any moves of support.
Either way, Wright left music altogether during the pandemic and is now happily working as the senior vice president of corporate social responsibility and new market growth at the global workplace experience and facilities management company ISS.
'I know firsthand what it feels like to be afraid that you don't fit in at work,' Wright told Us Weekly in a 2025 interview, adding, "I've always enjoyed figuring things out and finding a way to get a win, whether it be for my paper route customers [as a kid] or my country music fans, or the people I've been able to work with in design build and now facilities management. There's a win for everyone. And good business is making sure that your client is glad they spent their money with you. They do it again, and they'd tell their friends. That's it. That's what country music has in common with facilities management."