Tim McGraw On What Keeps His Marriage to Faith Hill Strong

Tim McGraw‘s middle daughter, 28-year-old Maggie McGraw, got engaged in August: A major life milestone that also signals the beginning of a new phase for McGraw and Faith Hill.

In a new interview with Esquire, McGraw points out that he and his fellow country star wife have had a lot of moments lately that signals they’re rounding the corner toward a new life stage. They celebrated 30 years of marriage in 2026, and next year, both will turn 60.

Read More: See Pictures of Tim McGraw + Faith Hill Through the Years

“We’ve lived a lot of life,” the singer says in the wide-ranging interview. “So we’re going in now, at 59, you’re stepping into another [chapter].”

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Are Thinking About the Grandparenthood Stage of Life

The couple have been empty nesters for some years now, and Maggie’s engagement is the first move from one of the kids towards finding life partners and raising family members of their own.

“Our middle daughter’s engaged,” McGraw continues, “so sooner or later they’ll all be married and there will be grandkids. So we’re stepping into a new phase of life.”

Tim McGraw + Faith Hill Had a Tough Time Adjusting to Being Empty Nesters

McGraw says the first months after their youngest daughter, 24-year-old Audrey, left home were tough. It was hardest on Hill, he acknowledges.

“Your whole life’s planned around, ‘Alright, we’re up at 6, we’re taking the kids to school, they get out at 3’ — that whole cacophony of stuff that happens when you have kids. When all that goes, there’s a quietness that’s sort of a, ‘What do I do with my mornings?'” he remembers. “…That lasted about six months.”

But he says that changed when they started thinking about their “empty nest” as a honeymoon chapter that they never really got to have.

McGraw and Hill married in October 1996, when both were already busy country music superstars, and their first daughter Gracie was born in May of 1997. They never really got a chance to sit back and soak in their marriage, just the two of them.

“Now it’s fun when the kids come to visit, we love it when they come to visit, but after a little while we start, you know, we kinda like being alone, a little,” McGraw jokes. “We’ve made it fun, by ourselves.”

Tim McGraw Explains How He + Faith Hill Keep Their Marriage Strong Through Life Changes

During his conversation with Esquire, McGraw reflected on how he and Faith Hill have kept their marriage flourishing through the many personal, career and family changes they’ve experienced over the past three decades.

He attributing their lasting love to their shared commitment to loving each other through each life stage.

Read More: Tim McGraw Could Barely Talk About Faith Hill During His Hall of Fame Speech

“The beauty, I think, in a long marriage is you get the chance to fall in love with a new person every so often, because people change,” McGraw said. “You’ll hear a lot of times, people go through a divorce or a separation, and they go, ‘You changed.’ Well, we all change. What you have to be committed to is, ‘Yeah, we’re changing, but we’re falling in love with the person we’re turning into every time we change.'”

He knows that marriages require some extra time and attention during those changes — and their current transition into an older life stage is no different.

“Points of change, I think, are the most dangerous parts of a long marriage,” McGraw adds.

“We’re stepping into a new phase of life,” the singer reflects, “and sometimes…that requires sitting down and talking about it a little bit, saying, ‘Hey, we need to check in and see where we’re at.'”

“You gotta have that foundation, and you gotta always go back to it,” he goes on to say. “The longer you wait to go back to it, the further away it gets, and you can get to a point where it’s unreachable.”