Celebrate the Heart of Country, Americana, and Roots Music!

Get To Know the Wife of Lady A’s Charles Kelley and Their Love Story

Charles Kelley's wife, Cassie McConnell
Arden Lambert
by

Arden Lambert covers breaking country music news for Country Thang Daily. If it just happened in country music, Arden is on it.

Charles Kelley’s wife, Cassie McConnell, caught the eyes of Lady A‘s founding member on the first day they met. The two got an interesting love story to tell.

Let’s get to know more about Cassie McConnell Kelley and her strong relationship with Charles Kelley.

It Was True Love at First Sight

Cassie McConnell met Charles Kelley when she was working as a publicist for Kelley’s brother Josh Kelly. Kelley said that the first time he met McConnell, it was true love at first sight. “I’m not gonna say it was like a movie, but it was like a movie,” Kelley shared.

“We just lock eyes the whole night,” the singer recalled. “We’re kind of looking at each other, and we’re like, Holy moly.’ She’s the prettiest girl that had ever paid me any attention.” After that, the two never left each other’s side.

“We just started talking. Every bar we went to, it was like us going into the corner talking. It was just love at first sight. And the very next day, I called her up and said, ‘Can I take you on an official date? I’d love to take you out to dinner.” And the rest was history.

It Was Actually Hillary Scott Who Set Them Up

It was in a popular Nashville restaurant where the sparks instantly started to fly for Charles and Cassie. But it would not have been possible without a little push from a fellow Lady A member.

“Little did we know that Hillary [Scott] kind of secretly was trying to set me up with Cassie,” Kelley admitted. “And the reason was because our keyboard player Jonathan, who still plays with us today, was dating Cassie’s sister. So all this to say, they were getting ready, and I didn’t know this was going on.”

They Have Their Share Of Growing Pains

As Lady A propelled toward stardom, the couple did have their share of growing pains. After months of dating, the two briefly broke up back in 2008. But according to Cassie McConnell, it ended up being the best thing that could have ever happened to them as a couple.

“We were broken up that whole summer of 2008,” she recalled. “It was great. I dated other people. My heart was honestly always with Charles, but I met a lot of nice people, which was nice.”

After Charles Kelley returned from a stint on the road in August of 2008, he came calling again.

“He called me one day in early August and said, ‘I’m coming back from the road, and I just wanted to talk about next steps for us,’ and I was thinking he was talking about just getting back together,” McConnell recalled. “But he was talking about getting engaged.”

She Used to Have Modeling Career

Cassie McConnell worked with a New York agent as a little girl and scored covers of two major magazines. She also landed dozens of other print gigs just within two years. But her modeling career was cut short in 1990.

The six-year-old McConnell decided she’d rather stay in Nashville and play with her friends than go back to New York. 

She’s a Mom to A Little Guy

Charles Kelley proposed to the gorgeous blonde on a Christmas morning in 2008. They got married in Nashville in June the following year. It all happened shortly before “Need You Now” hit the radio, and Lady A skyrocketed to fame and landed to huge success.

Unfortunately, the couple could not find the same success as a family. The Kelleys had a hard time conceiving. 

“We started trying to conceive our child a few years ago without any luck. Many months went by with negative pregnancy tests and a lot of shared frustration,” Kelley told The Boot. “I don’t know about other moms (or future moms) out there, but I just assumed that when we wanted to start a family, it would happen just like that. Well, it didn’t. We went through several years of trying before finally seeing our fertility doctor in Nashville.”

The couple took several months off to recuperate until they received the greatest news of their lives. The couple finally announced that they were having a baby in August 2015. The couple welcomed their adorable baby boy into the world on February 11, 2016. They named him Ward Charles Kelley.

Get To Know the Wife of Lady A’s Charles Kelley and Their Love Story

Know someone who loves Charles Kelley?

Pass this story along to your friends and family on Facebook.

Share on Facebook

Latest Stories

George Jones Called ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ Morbid, Reportedly Bet It Would Miss No. 1

George Jones heard the song Billy Sherrill was so sure about and wanted nothing to do with it. In his autobiography, I Lived To Tell It All, he remembered exactly ...

Ella Langley Toasts ‘365 Days of Madness’ for ‘Choosin’ Texas,’ the 45-Minute Song That Outran Mariah Carey

It took Ella Langley and three co-writers 45 minutes to write “Choosin’ Texas.” A year after the song came out, she is still trying to measure what those 45 minutes ...

Luke Bryan’s Son Bo Breaks His Collarbone in the Senior Season He Waited Three Years for, Then Makes Fans a Promise

Bo Bryan spent three years waiting for his Friday nights. The son of Luke Bryan sat behind a Mr. Football winner at Battle Ground Academy, and when the quarterback job ...

The 10 Best Riley Green Songs Ranked, From His First Single to the Duets He Never Planned

Riley Green played guitar as a boy in rural Alabama, but he never sang along until his grandaddy Buford started pushing him. “I never sang when I played guitar until ...

Is Dale Dickens Real? Cooper Alan Says His Hometown Never Had One, but Fans Keep Hearing ‘Goodbye Earl’

Cooper Alan helped write a song called “Dale Dickens (RIP),” and he has confirmed that Dale is a fictional character, Cowgirl Magazine reports. “He’s fictitious!” Alan said in a 2025 ...

Bull Rider Coy Thorson Cried ‘I Don’t Want to Do It’ as a Kid, but There Was No Backing Out

When Coy Thorson was a boy, there were times he cried and told his older brother, Colton, that he didn’t want to ride, and he still remembers how those moments ...

Tulsa King Season 4 Premiere Ends With a Plane Crash, and Neal McDonough’s ‘New Tulsa King’ Was on Board

Dwight Manfredi’s sister, Joanne, woke him at 4:30 in the morning to tell him the governor’s plane had crashed. Cal Thresher was on that overnight flight, and so was Margaret, ...

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw Were Married When They Won a Grammy Singing ‘Like We Never Loved at All’

Faith Hill was already married to Tim McGraw when she put a song on her own album about watching an ex move on as if the love had never happened, ...

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Who Lost His Own Dad to Racing, Says Brexton Busch Thriving ‘Helps Everyone Else’

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows what it is to lose a father to the sport his family loved most. Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a mid-race crash in 2001 at 49, ...

Dolly Parton’s Brothers and Sisters Made Music in Her Shadow, and One Brother Wrote the Song They Sang at His Funeral

Stella Parton was 7, and her big sister Dolly was 10, when Dolly started her career in TV and music. Stella later remembered how those sessions went. “We would write ...