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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Meredith Clark

Luke Combs says missing the birth of his son was ‘one of the worst days’ of his life

Getty Images for The Recording A

Luke Combs has made a candid confession about the birth of his second son, Beau.

The country singer, 32, recently appeared on Apple Music 1’s The Zane Lowe Show to talk about his new album, Fathers and Sons. Speaking to host Zane Lowe on June 20, Combs revealed that he missed the birth of his son in August 2023 because he was on tour in Australia.

(Getty Images for The Recording A)

The “Hurricane” singer described the arrival of his son Beau Lee, now 10 months, as both “the best and worst day” of his life. He explained that he woke up in a Sydney hotel room at eight in the morning when he noticed a text on his phone from his wife, Nicole. “I’m so sorry, I really tried to not have the baby while you were gone,” the text read.

“It sucked because he was born on August 15th in the states. I got to see him be born, which was awesome,” Combs explained, seemingly revealing that he was able to watch his son’s birth on FaceTime with his wife.

The Grammy-nominated artist noted that his son was born two and a half weeks early, and he had planned on being home from his tour by then. “That was real hard to do and I haven’t really told anybody that,” Combs admitted, as he called missing the milestone “really hard for me to deal with.”

While Combs confessed that “it was a hard day” for him, he said that he had a “really great support system” on tour – where his two best friends work as his personal assistant and his guitar tech. Combs shared that his wife also had a support system with her in Nashville, Tennessee, where the family of four live.

“Luckily, my mother-in-law came up for the month while I was gone because, obviously, we have a one-year-old and my wife is essentially nine months pregnant at the time, so thank goodness she was there,” he explained, referring to his now-two-year-old son, Tex. “My sister-in-law lives in Nashville as well. So my wife had a really great support system with her for that experience, which I’m very thankful for. That made it a lot easier. I had people with me, everything went great. No hiccups in the process or anything.”

Although Combs became choked up as he recalled missing the birth of his son Beau, the musician ultimately described the experience a “defining moment” in his life.

“It sums up, in a lot of ways, some of the bad parts of the music business – the leaving and your schedule’s crazy and you’re traveling all over the place,” he added. “It’s not like I can drop everything I’m doing and fly 18 hours home.”

Combs and his wife, Nicole Hocking, began dating in 2016 before getting engaged two years later. The couple were married in Florida in August 2020 and welcomed their first child, son Tex, in June 2022. Their second son Beau was born in August last year.

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