For the past two decades, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have reigned supreme as the first couple of mainstream country music.
As recently as last year, McGraw and Hill’s marriage appeared to be perfectly stable and harmonious.
They were often held up as an example of one of the few functional celebrity couples, and fans marveled at the fact that they’d raised equally wholesome kids despite the constant glare of the spotlight.
In August of 2015, McGraw dueted with his daughter Gracie during a concert in Nashville, thus demonstrating that he and Hill had passed on their talents to a new generation.
Shortly thereafter, however, reports of trouble in Tim and Faith’s marriage began to surface.
Back in April, several outlets even went so far as to report that McGraw and Hill were headed for divorce.
Six months later, it appears that either those reports were bogus, or the couple patched things up, because they’re still together and appear to be going strong.
Now, however, a new report has surfaced that seems that if true, is sure to result in further difficulties for Tim and Faith.
According to Radar Online, Tim has remained close with his ex-fiancee, Kristine Donahue, without Faith’s knowledge.
And when we say “close,” we mean like, “Kristine’s son considers Tim to be the central father figure in his life, Kristine uses Tim’s last name in legal documents” close.
“Tim McGraw was like a father to me when I was growing up,” Kristine’s son, Tyler Zarbo, recently told The Enquirer.
“He saw me as the son he never had, and we’ve stayed in contact. I wish he could have remained as my substitute dad, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Apparently, Hill recently found out about the situation when she discovered legal docs in which Kristine had used McGraw’s last name.
“Tim knew Kristine was sometimes using his last name, and he kept that from Faith,” an insider tells Radar.
“He knew full well that Faith would blow up if she knew – and that ended up being the case.”
Adding to the weirdness of the situation is the fact that Tim and Kristine were apparently friendly with Faith and her fiance back in the day.
“The couples even double-dated a couple of times,” the friend explained.
“They were all friendly with each other – and Kristine was actually using Tim’s last name on legal documents back then.”
The insider adds:
“She certainly thought Tim was going to marry her, and they’d be together forever.
“Tim and Faith started sleeping together on the road, and pretty soon both their fiancés were history.”
Apparently Tim always felt bad for leaving Kristine in the dust, and he helped bankroll a cleaning business that she started in 2008.
The business went belly up, and Faith caught wind of the situation when creditors came calling to collect on the $ 340,000 in personal debt Kristine had accumulated in Tim’s name.
There are no allegations of infidelity, but still, the situation doesn’t look good for Tim.
“Tim and Faith have faced many challenges over the years, but they’ve managed to keep going,” says the source.
“Still, they just aren’t as close as they once were, and learning Tim knew all along his ex was using his last name may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Faith.”
On the plus side, we could be in for a couple of great albums.
Country music and breakups got together, like, well … like Taylor Swift and breakups.
