Anyone who has ever brought a new boyfriend home knows the feeling. You like him a lot. You’re pretty sure your family will too. But there’s still that one thing you’re dreading saying out loud.
For Courtney Swindell, that one thing nearly ended her romance with a country star before it started.
Her husband is Cole Swindell, the country singer from Georgia. He was born in Glennville and grew up in Dawson, and he’s put together a long run of hits since. “Chillin’ It” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in 2013, and “You Should Be Here” got there in 2016. Then “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in 2022.
Courtney is a former member of the Charlotte Honey Bees dance team. She and Cole got married in 2024 in Sonoma, California, and their daughter, Rainey Gail, arrived on Aug. 7, 2025.
So how close did Courtney come to saying no? Closer than you’d guess.
She opened up about it on “Married To The Music,” the iHeart podcast hosted by Hanley Riggs, and Country Now wrote up the story on Oct. 28. Her worry wasn’t Cole himself. It was the age difference between them, and the talk it would mean back home.
“I cannot date this guy because I have to go home and tell my dad how old he is,” she remembered thinking.
That’s a real fear for a lot of daughters. Some dads only need one detail to make up their minds, and Courtney figured hers would fix on that number. If you’d like to hear Courtney in her own words, here’s her full chat with Hanley, which covers everything from North Carolina to a giant suitcase.
Courtney Swindell’s sit-down on “Married To The Music”
So she went home and had the talk anyway.
And her dad surprised her. His first question had nothing to do with age. He asked, “Does he treat you nicely?”
That’s a dad with his priorities in order. Courtney had her answer ready to go. “I was like, ‘if you meet him, you’ll love him.'”
She turned out to be right, and this is the part she clearly loves telling. Her dad met Cole, and “then he would watch his music videos and he’d be like, ‘hey, have you seen that one?'”
Yes, Dad. She’d seen that one.
Her sister was won over just as fast. Of the two of them, Courtney said: “They were obsessed with him. I knew they would. How could they not be?”
What sold Courtney in the first place wasn’t a big romantic gesture. It was something smaller. She noticed how kindly Cole treated the service staff wherever they went. “I was like, that’s a green flag.”
Courtney has talked about married life in other interviews too. In this one, on Samantha Busch’s channel, she gets into country music, marriage and her first stretch as a new mom.
Courtney Swindell talks marriage and new mom life
It’s funny how it worked out. The talk Courtney dreaded most didn’t go the way she feared. Her dad just wanted to know one thing, and once he met Cole, he became one of his biggest fans.
Now there’s a little granddaughter in the picture too, and Rainey has a grandpa who knows his way around her daddy’s music videos.