If you’ve had your finger on the pulse of the upcoming 2020 Grammys—or if you still can’t stop thinking about last year’s show—there’s a good chance you know singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.
At the 2019 Grammys, viewers and attendees got a taste of Brandi, 38, and wife Catherine Shepherd’s sweet relationship as they took the red carpet in celebration of Brandi's six nominations and subsequent three wins. While the couple's black suits made it clear that they’re fans of fashion, it was their admiring affection that made us want to dive deeper into their lives.
Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is best known for her critically acclaimed albums, her awards scores, her all-female country supergroup The Highwoman, and perhaps most of all, her electrifying performance of her signature track “The Joke” in 2019. The Grammys, which single-handedly sent their star status into the stratosphere.
But beyond all his fame and success, Carlyle is perhaps most proud of the family he’s building with his wife, Katherine Shepherd, whom he met backstage at a charity event in 2009—though at the time, They were talking on the phone. for over a year. Carlyle remembers being immediately attracted to her. “I guess because of his wit and his demeanor,” he once recalled to People.
Prior to that fatal encounter, Carlyle had come out publicly at the age of 15 and again in 2002. She later reflected that the decision to do so “neither helped nor hindered” her success in the music industry, although she credits media representation for her own sake. The realization “If you took Elton John and the Indigo Girls and the Philadelphia soundtrack and Ellen DeGeneres out of my teens, where would I even be?” He told the people. “I had come out of the closet even before I met a gay man in real life. I didn’t have anything close to a girlfriend, but I knew because I was represented in the larger culture.
Carlyle and Shepherd tied the knot in 2012 and now lead a somewhat private life, although they do not shy away from posting about their love for each other on social media.
Read on to learn more about Brandi Carlile and wife Katherine Shepherd—the movies you’ve seen Shepherd in before!
Who is Brandi Carlyle married to?
Shepherd is the daughter of prominent British actor Jack Shepherd, who has acted on stage and screen since the early 1960s. (You may have seen her in 2007’s The Golden Compass alongside Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman.)
Initially inspired by his father to pursue acting, Shepherd eventually pursued a career in philanthropy as a coordinator at Paul McCartney’s foundation; Today, she helps run the Carlyles Looking Out Foundation. He is also a musician, although he and his wife have not recorded anything publicly together yet. As Carlyle once told Richmond magazine, “[Shepherd] plays the guitar and sings really well. We jam at home all the time but it doesn’t really go beyond that.”
Is Katherine Shepherd British?
Yes! Born in 1975, Shepherd was raised in Hammersmith, London, and attended the city’s James Allen Girls’ School (where she also trained in ballet).
How old is Katherine Shepherd?
Shepherd was born on September 16, 1975. Shepherd is 46 years old, as of the 2022 Grammy Awards (where Carlyle, 40, has been nominated for five awards) on Sunday, April 3, 2022.
What does Katherine Shepherd do?
In the UK, Shepherd began acting as an on-set extra and went on to appear in several films and TV productions, including British series such as The Servant, The IT Crowd, and Dog Face. Despite now working in philanthropy full time, she still occasionally works on projects like 2014’s Paddington and 2017’s Paddington 2. She is equally talented behind the camera, writing credits on Apple TV+’s The Shrink Next Door and writing-directing a 2011 short film. See Me starring future Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
How did Brandi Carlyle and Katherine Shepherd meet?
Shepherd was working as a coordinator for McCartney’s charitable work under the umbrella organization MPL Communications Ltd when he and Carlyle first met over the phone. Carlyle approached the Beatles frontman’s foundation to donate items for the Fight the Fear charity event. “We communicated [over the phone] for about a year, and the whole time I felt like I was talking to someone who was 65. It was an interesting way to fall in love,” Carlyle told People. . While their initial phone chat lit the first spark of their relationship, it wasn’t until they met in person — after Shepherd flew in for a charity event in New York City — that things really took off. Finding out that Shepherd was actually a young woman, rather than the 65-year-old Carlyle portrayed, was “shocking to say the least,” the singer told People.
When did Brandi Carlyle get married?
The couple tied the knot in 2012 in Wareham, Massachusetts. Their celebration took place just three months after their engagement was announced and just before referendum 74 (which legalized same-sex marriage) was passed in Carlyle’s home state of Washington. They also had their London ceremony at the Chelsea Old Town Hall.
Their wedding day was not without its share of drama. In a Facebook post, Carlyle explained some of the ups and downs of the incident. “I’m sure all weddings have a crazy week before the event, but Katherine and I would have won that contest,” she wrote. “Bailey [the dog] had to be taken to the vet on our wedding day, and the day before the wedding, we had to put one of our goats [RIP Tim] down. To make it all, our priest didn’t show up! Ha ha! (Not her fault, but it will be one of those fun stories we’ll be telling over the years.) … I was so tired during the ceremony but Catherine was beautiful and composed in true British fashion!
In September 2022, the couple will complete 10 years of marriage.
Is Brandi Carlyle’s Child?
Actually, he has two! After the wedding, Carlyle and Shepherd knew they wanted to start a family right away, even if venturing into unknown territory was a little intimidating. “For my wife and me, every part of our emergence in the world of parenting was intentional and always felt like walking out on thin ice, blindfolded,” Carlyle said in 2020.
They have two children: daughters Evangeline (born 2014) and Eliza (born 2018). Carlile reflects on the bittersweet feeling that she herself did not have any children, admitting that the burden of her career would make it difficult to do so. In her book Broken Horses, the singer reflected that she “felt really confused about my role” before “making peace with not being pregnant”, understanding that her parenting was already ” leading” because there wasn’t one. Two-mother template for birth certificate yet.
These days, the family chooses to live a quiet life in rural Washington State on a campus near their families and Carlyle’s bandmates – some of whom are married to siblings Carlyle and Shepherd! Carlyle’s bandmate, Phil Hansroth, is married to Carlyle’s sister Tiffany, while her cello player Josh Newman is married to Shepherd’s sister Sarah. Couples all raise their children together and support each other unconditionally.
“Everyone teased, ‘Brandy’s creating a cult following.’ Next thing I knew, the people I work with were here. And we’ve gotten married into each other’s families,” Carlyle once said in a Q&A in Parents magazine. “It’s a community-based effort.”