Kimberly Williams-Paisley has revealed the key to keeping her 23-year marriage to country star Brad Paisley alive. The 9-1-1: Nashville actress said it actually boils down to two words: 'Don't leave.'
Williams-Paisley, 54, admitted the two-word phrase was actually borrowed from another big-name star. 'I heard Jamie Lee Curtis say recently, the secret is 'Don't leave.' I thought that was really, actually brilliant,' Williams-Paisley told Fox News Digital at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood earlier this month, where she spoke at a screening of her 1991 movie Father of the Bride.
'Yeah, just know there's gonna be ups and downs and don't give up. That was our secret,' she added.
Williams-Paisley and the 53-year-old 'Waitin' on a Woman' singer both juggle busy careers, but they work at carving out time to be together. 'We find time, we have to be deliberate about it,' she said. 'And I mean, we're married 23 years now. And we've also, there's times when we're busier and times when we're not. And right now I'm busier and, you know, he's about to start a tour this summer, which will make him busy. But when we have the downtime, we really make the most of it.'
The couple, who have two sons, William 'Huck' Huckleberry, 19, and Jasper Warren, 17, celebrated their anniversary on March 3 and it arrived with a sweet surprise from her husband. 'He wrote me a letter that was really sweet, and that was a surprise, because he hadn't written me a romantic letter in a long time, and it meant a lot to me,' she told the outlet.
It's not the first time Williams-Paisley has spoken about what makes her marriage tick. Back in 2021, following their 18th anniversary, she told People they make it work by keeping things fun and light-hearted. 'We record the meaningful moments, the best laughs. That's a big part of our relationship - focusing on the laughter and keeping a sense of play,' the Sister Swap star revealed. 'A lot of married couples would rather do anything but spend the evening together,' Brad chimed in at the time. 'That's not the case in our house.'
The mother-of-two also opened up to Fox News Digital about her recent health struggles. She lost her voice after speaking at a Nashville benefit in the fall of 2022 and was unable to speak above a whisper for two years. Doctors later determined the cause and diagnosed her with partial vocal cord paralysis. In August 2024, she underwent a three-hour laryngoplasty, during which a custom-fit implant was placed in her weak vocal cord. Immediately after the procedure, she had her voice back.
'Don't give up, same advice,' Williams-Paisley told the outlet, adding: 'I'm really fortunate that there was an answer for my condition, but in the meantime, looking for the answer, I wound up making a lot of healthy choices that I hadn't been making before.' She added: 'I started a regular meditation practice, I started really lifting weights in earnest, I started eating better, all these things, trying to find the answer to my vocal cords, and when I did finally get the surgery and everything, I had all of the benefits of all the other things that I gained while I was trying to find the answers, and that has changed my life.'
