Just a few weeks ago, Loretta Lynn‘s granddaughter, Emmy Russell, and her other half, Tyler Ward, announced the arrival of their first child together, a baby girl. But it turns out that the couple’s growing family isn’t the only exciting news they have been keeping under wraps.
According to a new interview with PEOPLE, the American Idol alum and Ward also secretly tied the knot last year. They chose to have a small, last-minute ceremony in the comfort of a living room, and kept all planning on the “down-low.”
“Emmy and I had been together for a while, and her heart was just like, ‘I want to be married.’ And then I’m like, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be married,’” Ward admitted. “And then you think about losing someone that you become best friends with and tight with and you’re like, ‘Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe that’s what marriage is. It’s just like, I don’t want this person out of my life.’”
He goes on to explain that everything from the Kroger cake to the soft twinkle lights and short invite list was just what they needed to celebrate their love for one another.
“We told everybody so last minute because we wanted to make sure it was for us and not everybody else,” Ward shared with the outlet. “We wrote our own vows. And it was one of those things where you’re like, this to me is how it’s supposed to be, because it was between us.”
Now, the husband and wife are starting their next chapter together as parents. Ward broke the news on Saturday, February 1, with a sentimental clip of him holding his newborn at just 12 hours old in the hospital room. A few days later he returned to social media to let fans know that labor was not easy for Russell, but that she and baby were both doing well.
According to the outlet, the songstress labored for 36 hours and lost 1.6 liters of blood, which she was unaware of until after being discharged. The 26-year-old may have had a difficult hospital experience, but to her, every challenge was worth it in the end when she finally got to hold her baby girl.
“I was really out of it because I was losing so much blood, and so I wasn’t really able to lift her my entire time at the hospital,” she shares. “But every time that I did get the chance to…that’s your child, it just melts your heart. I didn’t really know that kind of love existed.”
The couple has also revealed their daughter’s name, which Russell said came to her the same day she felt she might be pregnant. She recalled sitting at home and feeling as though something was telling her that she was having a baby and that it was going to be girl.
“I was sitting in my bed, as weird as this sounds, I literally heard, I felt like I heard God tell me, ‘Emmy, you’re pregnant, and your baby is Radiant.’ And I just heard the name Radiant. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well…’ And I felt the color pink,” she says.
After confirming the news with a test, there was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to name her first child after her husband, whom she initially connected with through his Nashville company, Song House.
“We said we had this name Radiant planned out, and it’s weird, but I just felt like that was the name,” Russell says. “And then I was thinking, ‘Well, Tyler’s middle name’s Ray.’ And then I told his mom and she was like, ‘Well, it’s a family name.’”
After seeing their little girl for the first time, and realizing how similar she looked to Ward, they decided it was meant to be that she take after his name as well.
“So her name is Taylor Raydiant Ward, R-A-Y-D-I-A-N-T,” Ward said. “We went with Taylor Ray for Tyler Ray, because she looks very similar and I’m freaking out. It’s amazing.”
Being the powerful songwriters that they are, the pair have recorded their first song together titled, “London Bridges,” which honors the love they feel for their newborn. The tune was penned for them by one of the first people they told about the pregnancy, a friend who also happens to be on the writing crew at Song House. Ward explained that a week after sharing the news, they were at a writing camp with the prompt, “how to make a grown man cry,” and this led to the creation of the song as a surprise for Ward and Russell.
“They came out like, ‘Hey, we think you’ll like this.’ And they played it, and I couldn’t get enough,” Ward revealed. “I teared up so much, to where it felt like our song.”
“And it’s called ‘London Bridges,’ and so it’s like the nursery song, London Bridges, like ‘London Bridge is falling down,’ ” Russell goes on to explain. “So it’s like that, ‘When your London Bridges are falling down, I’ll be right there with you. So we’re right there for you.’”
Russell, granddaughter to Loretta Lynn, and Ward, both admitted that getting the chance to record this song and film the emotional music video was a “scrapbook moment” that they will never forget.
“It’s beyond what I know at the moment; it feels like a brand new adventure we’re on, and I feel like everybody’s been here before, but it feels so new to us,” Ward says of the experience.
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