In 1994, backstage at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, Tim McGraw posed for a group photo and met a singer named Faith Hill.
On the way out, the girlfriend who had been standing right beside him gave him a warning.
More than 30 years later, that girlfriend has told her side of it.
Kristine Donahue, the woman Tim McGraw was engaged to before Faith Hill came along, came across an old clip of him telling the story on The Bobby Bones Show in 2016, and she posted her reaction on TikTok. She set it up like a scene, minding her own business, watching Bobby Bones, when suddenly her ex-fiance was telling a story about her from more than 30 years ago.
Her timing was perfect, or terrible, depending on how you look at it. It was Tim and Faith’s 30th wedding anniversary.
“Yes. I was the girlfriend. Yes. I was standing beside Tim when he met Faith,” she wrote.
Kristine Donahue Says Her Intuition Was Right All Along
In the 2016 clip, McGraw remembered the moment plainly. He and Hill were both on the new faces show, and they were backstage for a big group picture with Clay Walker and the rest.
“I was dating somebody at the time, and I met Faith, and when I left the person I was dating says, ‘Um, I don’t know if I want you to say hi to her anymore.’ It was immediate,” he said.
Donahue owned it with a laugh. She called it women’s intuition and said it does not miss, then wrote that she was clearly onto something, and wished a happy anniversary to two people who were obviously meant to find each other.
For You
It was not all jokes in the comments, though. When someone asked whether the whole thing bothered her, she gave a straight answer.
“It almost killed me,” Donahue replied.
She is married now, and she says she found the love of her life too.
Faith Hill Was Engaged Too When She Met Tim McGraw
The spark went both ways, and neither of them was free. Faith was engaged to producer Scott Hendricks when she met McGraw that night. It took two more years, and a spot as his opening act on the Spontaneous Combustion Tour, before she ended that engagement and they fell for each other. They married on October 6, 1996.
Shop Tim McGraw
- The Biggest Hits of Tim McGrawVinylWith “Don’t Take the Girl” and “It’s Your Love”See it on Amazon
- Live Like You Were DyingVinyl · 20th anniversaryWith the title songSee it on Amazon
- Songs of AmericaBook · 2019Written with Jon MeachamSee it on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate, Country Thang Daily earns from qualifying purchases.
To mark their 30th anniversary, McGraw posted a tribute to her, a photo montage set to his song “My Best Friend,” calling her the center of gravity in his life and the lives of their three daughters, Gracie, Maggie and Audrey.
“I am a fortunate man,” he wrote.
View this post on Instagram
Every great country love story has somebody standing just outside the frame, and in this one, she was close enough to see it happen. Thirty years later, Kristine Donahue looked back at the night he met Faith, laughed about being right, and still wished them a happy anniversary.
Know someone who loves Tim McGraw?
Pass this story along to your friends and family on Facebook.
