Trace Adkins Wives: Shooting Story and All Four Marriages

Country music icon Trace Adkins has lived a life that reads more like a screenplay than a biography. The 6-foot-6 Louisiana-born baritone behind hits like You’re Gonna Miss This, Ladies Love Country Boys, and Honky Tonk Badonkadonk has survived an oil-rig accident, a lightning strike, a rollover car crash, and, most infamously, a bullet through the heart fired by his own wife.

Adkins has been married four times. Each relationship shaped a different chapter of his personal and professional journey, and one of them nearly ended his life in 1994. In late 2026, during a candid appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, Adkins revisited the shooting story in unusually raw detail, prompting a fresh wave of interest in his marital history.

This guide walks through every one of Trace Adkins’ marriages, the full shooting story, the aftermath, and how he ended up finding stability with Canadian actress Victoria Pratt.

Trace Adkins wearing a black cowboy hat at an NBC event

Who Is Trace Adkins? A Quick Career Snapshot

Before the marriages and the headlines, there was a rig worker from Sarepta, Louisiana with a booming voice and a knack for storytelling. Born on January 13, 1962, Trace Adkins broke into country music with his 1996 debut album Dreamin’ Out Loud, a record that produced the top-ten single Every Light in the House.

Over the next three decades he earned four Grammy nominations, released more than a dozen studio albums, joined the Grand Ole Opry, and expanded into acting with roles in The Lincoln Lawyer, Bennett’s War, and NBC’s Ultimate Cowboy Showdown. He also finished as runner-up on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008 and won the All-Star edition in 2013.

His personal life, however, has often been just as public as his music.

Trace Adkins’ Four Wives at a Glance

Wife	Marriage Years	Notable Facts	Children Together
Barbara Lewis	1982 – 1990	High school sweetheart from Louisiana	Tarah (1983), Sarah (1985)
Julie Lauren Curtis	1991 – 1994	Shot Trace in the chest during a 1994 argument	None
Rhonda Forlaw	1997 – 2015	Former Arista Records publicity executive	Mackenzie, Brianna, Trinity
Victoria Pratt	2019 – Present	Canadian actress; wedding officiated by Blake Shelton	None together

Wife 1: Barbara Lewis, the Hometown Sweetheart

Trace Adkins met Barbara Lewis while he was still in Louisiana, and the two married in 1982 when he was just 20 years old. At the time, Adkins was working blue-collar jobs, including a stint on an oil rig, and country music was still a dream rather than a career.

The couple welcomed two daughters, Tarah in 1983 and Sarah in 1985. The marriage lasted about eight years before the two divorced in 1990. Both daughters have since given Trace grandchildren, and he speaks openly about being a proud “girl dad” and now grandfather.

Because this marriage predated his fame, very few public details exist about the split. What is clear is that the divorce came during a rough professional stretch, before Adkins signed with Capitol Nashville.

Also Read | Meet Alisyn Camerota Family and Husband Tim Lewis with Their 3 Children

Wife 2: Julie Lauren Curtis, and the Night That Nearly Killed Him

The second marriage is where Trace Adkins’ story shifts from country biography to genuine survival tale.

He married Julie Lauren Curtis on February 3, 1991. Multiple entertainment outlets have reported that Curtis was an aspiring actress and performer, and the pair moved together as Adkins continued chasing his Nashville dream. The marriage was brief and turbulent, largely because of Adkins’ own admitted struggles with alcohol during that era.

What Happened on February 21, 1994

According to reports from People magazine, Fox News, Taste of Country, and Adkins’ own 2007 memoir A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck, on the night of February 21, 1994, the couple got into a heated argument about his drinking.

The exact sequence, as Adkins has described it across multiple interviews, went like this:

Curtis wanted him to leave the house. He refused.
She retrieved a .38-caliber handgun.
Adkins tried to disarm her, walking toward her with his hand out.
The gun discharged at point-blank range.
The bullet entered under his left arm, passed straight through both lungs and his heart, and exited under his right arm.

Adkins told Theo Von in 2026 that he remembers getting up, taking a few steps, and collapsing again. “That’s all I remember,” he said.

The Emergency Surgery

He was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where surgeons performed emergency open-heart surgery. Doctors initially gave the family little hope. In his memoir, Adkins wrote that hospital staff advised loved ones to say their goodbyes.

Doctors later told him he only survived because the bullet was travelling at muzzle velocity, meaning it passed cleanly through his body without expanding, or “mushrooming,” inside the wound channel. That fluke of physics is why the injury was survivable at all.

Why Trace Adkins Did Not Press Charges

To the surprise of many, Adkins declined to press charges against Curtis. In interviews spanning two decades, he has offered a consistent explanation: he does not believe she truly understood what a firearm would do.

Speaking to Theo Von in the November 2026 podcast episode, Adkins said, “I don’t think she even had any idea what that gun was going to do. She thought it was a toy.” He added that he had never seen her hold or fire a weapon before that night.

The couple divorced later in 1994. Adkins has said, more than once, that the emotional weight of that period cut deeper than the physical trauma, telling People magazine, “It’s the broken hearts that left the deepest scars.”

Fact Box: The Shooting in Numbers

Date: February 21, 1994
Weapon: .38-caliber revolver
Path of the bullet: Through both lungs and the heart
Hospital: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville
Surgery: Emergency open-heart surgery
Charges filed: None

Book referenced: A Personal Stand (2007)

Wife 3: Rhonda Forlaw, the Music-Industry Insider

By the time Adkins recovered, his music career was finally taking off. He signed with Capitol Nashville and released Dreamin’ Out Loud in 1996, going platinum on the strength of songs like Every Light in the House and (This Ain’t) No Thinkin’ Thing.

Behind the scenes, one of the people helping him navigate the industry was Rhonda Forlaw, a publicity executive who had worked with Arista Records and figures such as the country supergroup The Highwaymen. The two met in 1996, and their professional partnership turned romantic.

Adkins proposed to Forlaw during his Grand Ole Opry debut, a moment that quickly became country-music folklore. They married on May 11, 1997, at the historic Belle Meade Mansion in Nashville, with roughly 500 guests, an antique carriage, and a live serenade in which Adkins sang The Rest of Mine, a song he co-wrote with Kenny Beard.

Forlaw and Adkins had three daughters together:

Mackenzie, born in 1998
Brianna, born in 2001
Trinity, born in 2004

Their 17-year marriage was Adkins’ longest to date. It also weathered a very public battle with alcoholism. In 2014, Adkins entered rehab following an incident aboard a cruise ship. The couple separated shortly after, with Forlaw filing for divorce. The split was finalised in 2015.

Publicly, both parties have kept the reasons for the divorce private, though Adkins has repeatedly credited his sobriety journey with saving his career, his health, and eventually his ability to build a healthier relationship.

Wife 4: Victoria Pratt, the Actress Who Brought Stability

The fourth chapter of Trace Adkins’ love life reads noticeably calmer than the first three.

How They Met

Adkins met Canadian actress Victoria Pratt in 2013 on the set of the western film The Virginian. Pratt, best known for her lead role in the syndicated sci-fi series Mutant X and appearances in Heartland, Day Break, and Castle, played a co-starring role. The two later reunited on the 2019 motocross drama Bennett’s War.

Trace Adkins and his wife Victoria Pratt at ACM Honors

Pratt is not only an accomplished actress. She graduated summa cum laude from York University in Toronto and later worked in the school’s Human Performance Lab, where she tested elite athletes from professional hockey teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, and San Jose Sharks. She also holds a blue belt in Shotokan karate.

A Wedding Officiated by Blake Shelton

On October 12, 2019, Trace Adkins and Victoria Pratt married at the Maison Montegut in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The officiant was none other than country superstar Blake Shelton, a longtime friend and collaborator who took time off from The Voice for the occasion.

Adkins’ daughters attended the ceremony. The couple has since celebrated multiple anniversaries and appear frequently at industry events together. In interviews, Adkins has repeatedly credited Pratt with helping him embrace a healthier lifestyle.

“Victoria makes me drink kale smoothies, and she cooks really healthy stuff,” he told People. “Plus, I do a lot of physical work at home. I feel great.”

For Pratt, this is her second marriage. She was previously married to director-photographer T.J. Scott, and that union ended in 2016.

Trace Adkins’ Children: The Five Daughters

Between his first and third marriages, Trace Adkins fathered five daughters. He often refers to himself as a “girl dad” and has featured his younger daughters in music videos and public appearances.

Tarah Adkins (born 1983) with Barbara Lewis
Sarah Adkins (born 1985) with Barbara Lewis
Mackenzie Adkins (born 1998) with Rhonda Forlaw
Brianna Adkins (born 2001) with Rhonda Forlaw
Trinity Adkins (born 2004) with Rhonda Forlaw

Tarah and Sarah have children of their own, making Adkins a grandfather.

Why the Shooting Story Resurfaces Every Few Years

The 1994 incident continues to attract attention for several reasons.

First, the survival story itself remains medically remarkable. A bullet through the heart and both lungs is almost always fatal. Adkins’ recovery is often cited by cardiac trauma professionals as an example of how projectile velocity influences outcomes.

Second, Adkins does not avoid the topic. Instead of building a wall around it, he weaves it into his memoirs, interviews, and even between-song banter at concerts. That openness has kept the story culturally alive.

Third, the story hits a genre-defining note. Country music has long been shaped by tales of hard living and redemption. Adkins’ journey from Louisiana oil rigs to open-heart surgery, addiction, recovery, and finally stable family life fits that tradition almost too neatly to ignore.

Career Impact: How His Marriages Shaped the Music

Trace Adkins has said in multiple interviews that his personal life fuels his songwriting. Songs like You’re Gonna Miss This, released in 2007, tap directly into the passage of time, parenting, and regret, themes that ring especially true for a father of five whose family has weathered so many transitions.

The Rest of Mine, the ballad he sang at his 1997 wedding to Rhonda Forlaw, remains one of his best-known love songs. His willingness to speak openly about survival, sobriety, and second chances has also expanded his appeal beyond traditional country radio, helping him land TV roles and win The Celebrity Apprentice: All-Stars in 2013.

Industry and Social Media Reaction

Following the November 2026 Theo Von podcast interview, clips of Adkins recounting the shooting circulated widely on TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Country music outlets including Holler, Taste of Country, and Fox News Digital published follow-up features within 24 hours.

Fan reaction has been broadly supportive, praising his openness and his refusal to sensationalise the incident. Several commenters noted the striking contrast between the darkness of the story and the light tone Adkins used to describe it, a coping style he has developed over decades of retelling.

Interesting Facts You May Not Have Known

Adkins survived being struck by lightning years before the shooting.
He also survived a serious rollover accident that involved his own truck.
His memoir title, A Personal Stand, was published by Villard in 2007 and became a New York Times bestseller.
Blake Shelton and Adkins have collaborated on the songs Hillbilly Bone (2010) and Hell Right (2019).
Victoria Pratt’s acting résumé includes more than 40 credits across film and television.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many times has Trace Adkins been married?

Four times: to Barbara Lewis, Julie Lauren Curtis, Rhonda Forlaw, and Victoria Pratt.

Which of Trace Adkins’ wives shot him?

His second wife, Julie Lauren Curtis, shot him in the chest on February 21, 1994, during an argument about his drinking. The bullet passed through his heart and both lungs.

Did Trace Adkins press charges against Julie Curtis?

No. He has said publicly that he does not believe she intended to kill him and has stated she likely did not understand what the gun would do. The couple divorced later that year.