The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby - Breaking up, The Bachelor & growing up billionaire w/ Madi Prewett Troutt

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Madi Prewett Troutt and her husband, Grant Troutt, join Matt & Abby to share their whirlwind love story—from meeting on a blind date to their three-month engagement. They address rumours about the cost of their wedding, talk about becoming parents, and reflect on what Grant learned growing up with his father being a billionaire. Madi opens up about their breakup, why she kept her pregnancy a secret at first, and Grant shares why he refuses to watch The Bachelor. This episode is sponsored by Cash App, Nutrafol and BetterHelp. Cash App: Download Cash App Today: https://capi.onelink.me/vFut/kssum24w #CashAppPod As a Cash App Partner, I may earn a commission when you sign up for a Cash App account. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking servicces provided by Cash APp's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Nutrafol: Visit https://nutrafol.com and enter promo code UNPLANNEDPOD for $10 off any order and free shipping when you subscribe. BetterHelp: Visit https://BetterHelp.com/unplannedpodcast today to get 10% off your first month. Chapters: 00:00 - Madi Prewett Troutt 01:03 - Being new parents 11:17 - Taking care of a newborn 16:20 - Why we were shocked when we got pregnant 17:28 - Why I didn't tell my husband I was pregnant 24:14 - When you don't know what a blind date is 29:53 - What my dad learned after becoming a billionaire 40:44 - Addressing misconceptions about my wedding 51:26 - Why I refuse to watch the Bachelor 54:33 - Breaking up with Madi 56:30 - Introducing my ex-boyfriend to my family Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You guys got engaged seven months after you met, and then... Three month engagement. Three month engagement. So within 10 months, you were married. Yeah. This wasn't the first time that you were engaged, right? What? Wasn't there...

I'd never been engaged before. Oh, there wasn't. Did I get that wrong? I was like, tell me more, brother. He has not seen any part of The Bachelor. You've never seen any of the episodes. I want to know this, Maddie right here. I don't think she'd want to go see my ex-girlfriend moments.

No. We ended the same day I was going to meet her family. She told everybody. So I'm meeting everybody like, hey, mama. And they're looking at you like, who's this a-hole that just provoked up with my sweet. sweet girl. Today on Unplanned, we sat down with Maddie Pruitt Trout and her husband, Grant Trout. You probably already know Maddie from her time on The Bachelor, but she didn't meet her husband on the show. She ended up meeting him on a blind date. Grant is the son of billionaire

Kenny Trout, who sold his company for over $3 billion. We talk about Maddie and Grant's love story, why they broke up, and what Grant learned from his billionaire father all on today's episode. Maddie Pruitt Trout and Grant Trout, welcome to the podcast. Yes, so good. Thank you for being here. Welcome to Unplanned. Thanks for having us. Of course. You guys are new parents. Tell me about how that's been. Let's jump straight into it. Parenting. Parenting. Literally the best thing in the world. It is great. She's six months now. Six months old. I feel like that's a big milestone.

She's become her own personal. A little personality. Which is wild. She hasn't started crawling forward yet, but she's learned how to push herself back and scoot herself back. So we're making progress. She's sleeping through the night now. Praise. That was a big praise for. Were y'all's kids early on that or like later in the game? It depended on the kid, really. I don't want to discourage you, but... She's like immediately. No, no, no, I don't want to scourge you, but... Please don't discourage me, because we're just now hitting courage.

No, no, I mean, tell us, tell us. No, I'm not going to say it. She's like, we regress. Did they start, did they go back? I mean, yeah, there's... Well, our worst sleeper is our three-year-old, but I'm not even going to... Here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Everyone has their own kids, their own journeys. They're all unique. Yeah. No, it's true. I have friends who legit, like, their baby out of the womb, slept through basically almost through the night. Yeah, I woke up one time to feed. And I'm like, our second K was like that.

Recently, we were able to get him and his brother to sleep in the same room because they just feel like buddies and like that. It's sweet. That's cool. But then like literally just a couple days ago, he started waking up in the night again. So you've been co-sleeping with him again. So it's just like, it's a whole process. That's what I was just say. If parent head has taught me anything, as soon as we get comfortable, they just really like.

Don't get comfortable. Just be ready. And I'm also like, man, I really should just. to be careful what I say because there's been so many times I've been like, ma'am through that tunnel and then we're just like, oh, oh, here we are. And now there's another tunnel. We're back here again. We've made another one.

But you know what? That's a huge milestone. I feel like you should be pretty good for a round now. Get some sleep. When you say sleeping through the night, like are we talking nine hours, 12 hours? Like, what does that mean? What is she's seven to seven right now? Seven to seven.

Oh, heck yeah. Massive for the program. It is huge. Because then we get time after we put her down. And it's like, oh, this is so. nice to get to connect just the two of us and then yeah wake up early in the morning get a little bit of quiet time and you know start the day it's good it's been really good and she's in her own room she's like getting sassy right now i don't know it's starting to come out really yes she's

she'll have this like push away she'll poke her lips out yeah and i'm like hosanna it is super cute man she rolls over she's sleeping her own crib uh man she's trapped she's been to 10 states i think really So she's just along for the ride, which has been fun. She honestly does so good. Like, she'll even, like, sleep through the night in, like, a hotel room where, like, lights coming in, like, her whole sleep environments, you know, thrown off a bit. We were on, we were coming back from Montana, like, two days ago. And she killed Montana to Dallas.

She crushed it. Killed it. But then we sat in Dallas to go to Nashville for, like, long. And the flight had no air conditioning. Except for the fact that she, well, on the way there, she had a blowout and pooped all over me. Maddie's pants. I'm covered in poop on the plane for like, I didn't bring an extra pair of clothes. I brought her an extra pair of clothes because I didn't blow out.

It's going to happen. But me wasn't prepared to be pooped all over. So I was covered in poop. No. We've had plain poop situations. You had plain puke situations. One time, Abby, those will get real. I was sticking too.

Abby was a saint. She literally went into the bathroom on the plane, that teeny little bathroom and scrubbed out the poo from the 1sie with soap and water. I'm looking a mistake to not have a extra set of clothes The airport that we were flying into was outdoors So we had to walk off the plane and it was cold We're like we can't have our baby We're gonna fly into this was into I think Montana

It was nice yeah Montana What is it? Don't go to Montana or so we covered What's the name of that airport? That was also when I got puked on was going to Montana Yeah it's always Montana Okay you guys

Our whole entire family got sick in Montana Everyone was throwing up Guys goodness Wait yeah we both got puked on in Montana No no no So many casualties. Yeah. That's,

parenting is humbling. Humbling. Man. It's like it's like great for character development. Like you made you a better person being a parent. Like has it like taught you selflessness in a way that you didn't understand before? Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

And it's definitely revealed like I think selfishness too. Like where we're, you know, just prone to want your own way or like you have your set of expectations of how you want the day to go. But then it's like there's going to be some unexpected twists and turns that, you know, you didn't see coming. But I would say truly, it's just been like the best thing ever. Like I would say for me as a mom, I feel like I've stepped into a level of purpose that I just didn't even know was possible. I'm so blessed to say like I feel like I'm living out my purpose. But stepping into motherhood was like a whole new level of that.

And it's just been like the greatest gift. And then getting to see your person that you love like be a parent is the sweetest thing. She like stepped into it flawlessly. I feel like I'm struggling a little bit. I don't know how you were with your kids when they can't talk that. So she feeds her. She does all the things. And I'm like, I love Joseana so much.

But it's also so different for the dad at the start. And I'm like, early on, the biggest struggle was like, I would get her when she's crying or to change her diaper. And I'm like, okay, she's so sweet with Maddie. Maddie feeds her. They have these deep moment. Okay, Grant, take her, change her. Was that your experience? It's funny you say that because I've talked to so many dads about this.

And I luckily have gotten to the point now where I have a three-year-old and almost two-year-old. And we have full-on conversations. Totally. And we will laugh together to a point where, like, I can't even breathe. I'm like, it's going to change the game. And the response. So if you're finding any enjoyment in the newborn stage, like, just wait. Like, it gets to be so much fun.

Now I really understand where this, like, pure love for parenting comes from because, like, I'm in it and I never want it to end. I never want the joy in my son's face when I come out of my office and he sees me and he's like, he just thinks I'm like a superhero. You would think it's been like a month? Yeah. It's like I've been. And it just, no, there's nothing like that. It's the best.

And it's hard to see that when you're in the newborn stage and you're waking up four or five times the night. But I feel like it's those early months that like create the foundation of like why it just keeps getting better though. Yeah. You go through that bond. We were up all night together. Like, we cried together. For sure, man. Mom was crying.

Everybody was crying. I was in the corner crying. The tears. So many. You mentioned it being tough in the beginning. What's been a moment for you that you had to like really dig down deep and push through? A man, her third day of a life. Little girl just born.

She's not, she didn't poop for like, pee or poop for 36 hours. And so, you know, if y'all go back to your first baby, everything is so serious. Well, first off. we're leaving the hospital it's 11 degrees so we're like bundling it's freezing outside this is january 20th it's so cold we come out and y'all know that moment when you're leaving the hospital for the first time you're just like come out my car won't start oh god and he had had so many car issues and i had this feeling you guys i said grant i think we need to get a new car like i have this weird feeling about the car like on the way to the hospital or coming home from the hospital

and he's like we'll be fine i'm like should we take my car and he's like we'll be fine the car doesn't start so car's dead it's freezing and we've like loaded the car with everything. The car seat's in there perfectly. You don't know how you get it all right. So then we're like, oh my gosh. And she's like getting nauseous. She's weak. We're calling her mom. And luckily her mom was in town came and got us. So already it feels like, oh, we're like a little spinning. Like this is hard. Go home. But she won't go to the bathroom. It's been a day and a half. And then the doctor's like, oh, I guess she's not eating. So we were afraid that she wasn't taking Maddie's breast milk. And it was just a really hard moment where you realize I am so dependent. I'm not in

control. And luckily a girl came over who gave her breast milk. Like some frozen donated breast milk from like some of her friends. Like it essentially felt like the picture of like the church coming together and helping you when you're in need. And just like community. And just like community because we're sitting here like I don't know what to do. Like I'm feeding my daughter. I guess she's not getting enough milk because she's not going to the bathroom. You know, you feel that pressure of like they have to get back up to their birth weight and all these things. And you know, they're supposed to like have as many, however many like wet diapers and poops or whatever. And I'm just like, she hasn't peter pooped in over 36 hours. So we're just like

freaking out. I'm having a breakdown. I'm coming off all my hormones. Then I'm like having a breakdown. I'm like, I don't know. Like, what are we doing? And you haven't slept in like, three days. So you're trying to like think. And if y'all, like, I just remember being the smallest things felt so hard. If it was like, take out the trash. I'm like, I don't even know how to like start because I haven't slept. And so it's just like, but then luckily she went to the bathroom after that. Just moments where we were like, this is new. hard and it's vulnerable because you're now in control and in charge of this baby scammers are getting way too good in 2025 especially with AI like recently I've been getting text messages all the time about

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Prepaid debit cards, issues by Sutton Bank member FDIC, instant discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash. Dot app forward slash legal forward slash podcast for full disclosures. I remember the first time they left the hospital room and we looked around like, but who's in charge of this? Like us? Like, this is ours?

And then different moments where I would say, like, you just aren't sleeping. And when the baby's screaming, as a dad, you want to fix and you can't fix. Because I think she probably had a little bit of colic. And she wasn't sleeping well at night. She struggled with sleeping. So it was a lot of screaming early on. Like, now she's such an incredible, sweet little baby girl. And she has her sassy moments.

But she, at first, I feel like really struggled being outside of the womb. She's like, wait, I really liked the womb. You know, what am I doing here? it was a big adjustment so it was it was hard like we're not getting sleep she's struggling sleeping you know screaming crying um and you're just adjusting to a new life with a with a baby and trying to figure out all the things so it was you know a lot of asking community to pray and just having people come around us asking honestly like texting a lot of moms and being like hey what did you do how did you do this and really like turning to community and not trying to

figure it out yourself yeah i think was honestly so huge for us um i think it's so easy to just like try and, you know, like muster up the strength and figure it all out on your own. I was sorry to interrupt. Did you figure out any hacks or tricks? Like, I know for us, I would literally take out my phone and play this shushing sound from a like a sleep sound app that I downloaded for free. Yeah. And the, the shushing would help.

And, you know, I just like play the over and over and over. Like, did you have anything like that that would help if your, if your baby wouldn't sleep? Yeah, we had all that. The hatch. y'all mess with the hatch I mean honestly she was so like honestly just wanted to be held

all the time now we're in the stage where the happy song is really big you haven't heard about the happy song what is the happy song you haven't heard the happy song you guys well she does not like the car

so you know everybody's like oh they get in the car they fall asleep the car I'm like no it's not our story she gets in the car she starts screaming in the car so the happy song changed your life so that's been one of our hacks

for all you listeners tell literally mid-scream she hears this beat come on And it's, oh, she's quiet. Amazing. It's unbelievable. It's really odd. Whatever they put in that song.

I don't know what it is. Listen, I don't know what's in that song. I hope it's okay. That's funny. Yeah, I'll go to check it out. We've got to check it out. You haven't heard of it? I feel like I might have heard of it, but maybe, I don't know.

We probably could sing it for you right now because we know the words. Would you please do the honors of singing it? It's like, uh, uh, uh, it's this beat that starts. And then it's like a baby noise. You little monkey. You gotta go listen to it Don't make us do this It's got all these different sounds

Check it out Yeah y'all got to check it out man You're missing out Man I feel like I am You're gonna get in the car It's for the adults too I'm gonna go like it on Spotify right after this And the Hot Wheels

Theme song Hot Wheels And Hot Wheels Let's break That's a good boy life My favorite one though is There's like the spooky one The Spooky one

The boys are always like Dad spooky song It's like spooky song And so there's this, this track. It's not even like an actual song. It's just like some background track in the Lilo and Stitch movie where I think like maybe it's where Stitch lands on Earth and his space shit. It's like little spooky. Yeah, yeah.

And the boys love it. They think it's so cool. They also like the amazing Spider-Man song. We have like lots of Spidey and his amazing friends. We got lots of songs going on. That's awesome. But they have like, they're like, that's Augie song. That's Griffin's song.

And it's like, it's a big deal. Yeah. Are they close? Oh. Oh, yeah. They can't be separated. Actually, we dropped them off, and they were supposed to go in separate places, and every single time they have to go together. They have to join the older class.

That's the blessing of, like, having them close together. Oh, seriously. They, like, need to be together. Yeah, and everybody always asks us if they're twins, because they look, they look like twins. They're getting closer in size, so it's like, yeah. Yeah, okay, having a baby was that planned? Was it a surprise? Whose idea?

Like, if it was like, yeah, someone's idea? Whose idea was this? Our mom. How did it start? How did it start? We had just started having conversations about it. We were living in Waco, Texas at the time, and we were in Waco, Texas. Grant was working out of church as a young adult's pastor, and we knew that that was a temporary season, like we knew it wasn't forever, and so we had started talking kind

of about, like, okay, we feel this season coming to an end. Do we stay here? Do we move somewhere else? Do we stay in ministry? do we you know what does this look like and kids was just such a big part of that conversation we felt like in our perfect world of course you can't always plan everything but in our perfect world it was like okay let's be married for a little over a year and then whenever we feel like it's a good time start trying for kids and we're super thankful and

blessed to say that honestly it happened a lot quicker than we expected I think we honestly expected it to take a while and so we thought it was going to gear your heart up for like all the stories here right well we walked our friends through really hard stuff So I think we really expected it to take a long time. And so we kind of thought it would happen, you know, maybe once we moved and, like, got settled in Tennessee when we felt led to move to Tennessee. But it happened pretty quick. So we were in Waco, Texas, and found out he actually, it was his last week of the job. So she didn't tell me for a full week.

I found out. She held that in for seven days. I did. Tell them how you found out. So I. It's Sunday. He works at a church, so he works last Sunday at church. Because last Sunday on staff at church, and I was like feeling like, okay, I think I'm about

to start my period, but like I am not feeling the best, but I mean, there's no way. Like I'm pregnant. We had just started trying to try it. We literally just started trying to try. So I was like, there's no way, but I'm just going to take, you know, of course I had like 30 pregnancy tests just in the bathroom. And so I'm like, I'm going to take a pregnancy test. And it said pregnant.

And I was so not expecting it that I was like, I didn't even record my reaction. I mean, I literally just was not expecting it. And I was like, there's no way. So I take another one. And then I take another one. And they all three say pregnant. And I'm like, okay, I think I'm pregnant. But it was his last week of work.

So I just was like, I want him to finish well. I was speaking twice, at two different things. And so she's like, I wanted him to really focus on this last week and finish well. But throughout the week, she would be so emotional with me. And I thought she was just so sad that, like, I was finishing work. And she was so proud of me. I'm like, I just love you so much. Yeah, she's like, wow, she really loves it.

I love you so much. You're doing such a good job. And I was like, yeah, babe. I'm like crushing this week, huh? And really, she, like, knows we're pregnant. Yeah. So I'm just, like, all in my feels of like, he's going to be such a good dad. But he doesn't know.

Like, I'm just, you know, I'm just. That's hard. How long did you keep it a secret? For a week. So I finished last day, which was like a Thursday. And then that Friday, I go to like do something, come back. Just like, yeah. And she's like, hey, granted, I have something for you.

Because she was giving me gifts for my last week. Like, here's a hoodie. Here's notes. I had Grant, I have one last gift. And I'm like, okay, pair of shoes. Like, what is this? Walk in. And, dude, it was the, like, wooden.

We're having a baby pregnancy test. Small Jordan, my size Jordan behind it. Wow. And I'm just like, I like start spinning. I can't even speak. I started crying. Yeah. Because I just so wasn't expecting it.

Yeah. I don't know how you sat on that for a week. I know. No one knew. I'm like, girl, you can carry a secret. That's kind of dangerous. That is crazy. You can hold that in the vault like that?

I just did not like anytime he asked me about me, I just, I was so selfless that week. I was like, no, babe, tell me about you. Yeah. How are you feeling? I knew if I started talking, I would, you know, spill the, spill the beans. So I just, I wanted the moment to be special and I wanted him to feel like he could fully celebrate it. And I knew his mind was very consumed with obviously wanting to finish strong and finish

well at his job. And I wanted him to be able to do that. And he just respected so much the head pastor, Jonathan Picluda. and so just wanted that all that whole season to like finish well and then I wanted him to be able to like fully celebrate the new season of us stepping into like parenthood and so I just was like I'm just gonna wait and then that gave me a chance to like plan out like hmm how do I want to tell him and I ordered cute Jordans are those the Jordans right there from the announcement no it should have been they're baby blue they're smooth huh yeah they're these like all white just like no color on it's cool though did you kind of like want a girl or have any preference at all Oh, listen, she will tell you she was indifferent. She's like, grand, I could care less. Boy, a girl. We found out it was a girl.

And she's like, praise God. Thank you, God. I just grew up with two sisters. So I just am so familiar and comfortable. And, like, my family used to foster. And, like, even the little girl we foster, it was a girl. So, like, I just am so familiar with little girls. And so I was like, that would just be so sweet for, like, our first to be a girl.

Yeah. But I really was going to be so excited either way. But. Wait, I have to ask. I have, like, an internal theory. Do you have sisters? Little sister. Okay, that really plays well into my theory.

I was telling your team, I was like, I have this theory that it's the husband, siblings. If you look at them, like, if he has a sister, they'll probably have a girl. And if they have brothers and they'll probably have a boy. But what if I have both? You have both? You know, both? Then I'm, I got nothing. I got nothing.

Then your next kid will be a boy. No, my mom thought it was twins. Yeah, come on. My mom was like full on in belief that we were going to have twins. And I was like, mom, we're not having twins. Like, we would go. and the ultrasound and grant would literally be like asked the person, no, can you check again and just make sure

why did she think that? I have no idea. She just is usually right on those things. She's usually always right. My mom's been wrong every single baby we've ever had in the family. So when she has a guest, I'm like, I'm pretty confident in the other. She predicted, wait, she predicted a girl for both of our boys. She predicted, even after we were like, it's a boy, she's like, I'm pretty sure it's

she predicted boy for your, uh, our sister-in-law, right? Yeah, she's having a girl. She's always wrong. I love it. And then she's like very confident to the point where like she starts to convince me of things. Like, I'm like, no, be sure because I think it. Because with me, actually, they told my mom that I was a boy.

No. It still makes me feel weird to this day. I'm like, why do they think that? Yeah, there's something like, freaks me out. I'm like, it was a long time ago. Don't carry that anymore. You got to let that go right now. You are a girl.

But it was like not until like her last appointment that they were like, you excited to meet your baby girl. And they're like, boy. And she's like, no. We had that fan because we had people. Because we had people, like, randomly come up and be like, I feel like you're having a boy, like, would say that to me. And I'm like, no, we're having a girl.

Like, and I'm like, I've already started buying cute things. You're like, please don't make me switch my mind. That's crazy. That would, like, rock me. Dude, I know. Did they already have the name and everything for boy? No, I think they were, like, really disappointed. They were really expecting a girl.

So they, like, were really kind of thrown off when they thought I was going to be a boy. Wow. So they were really happy. Yeah, they were like a lot. Yeah, they were really, seriously. You guys have probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, does this actually work? Like, it's kind of hard to believe.

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Find out why Nutraful is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at Nutraful.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com promo code Unplanned Pod. That's Nutraful.com promo code unplanned pod. Wait, hold up. So pregnancy happened one year. I love timelines. I'm trying to get the timeline right. I'm a big time I got too. I've recently discovered this.

So, yeah, you got pregnant. And that was a year after you got married, ish? You, like, waited a year to start trying. You got pregnant right away? No, so it was a, we got married October of 22. Okay. Got pregnant May of 24? A year and a half.

Okay, year and a half. Yeah, yeah, you're a half. Okay, nice. And then before that, when you started dating, you guys went from, like, meeting to, like, you got married pretty quickly after you met, right? Oh, yeah. What, like, what was that timeline? Let's talk about that timeline, bro, because I'm a big timeline guy.

Blind date December 3rd. How did that happen? Yeah, who set this up? Matt really told me on the way here because we knew that you guys met on a blind day. Matt's like, why do I feel like it's like dating in the dark? And I'm like, seriously, I was like Abby, could they like, when it's a blind date, could they see each other? Like, are you guys, is there a wall between you? You guys, we all like that love is one.

You guys, you all met in eighth grade. Y'all missed the whole dating scene. We are. We are not. Like, isn't that like love is blind? Yeah. It's like you're on another side of a wall. Yeah.

It's just all about your communication. We should have ever like seen that, honestly. That is crazy. Okay. I've watched the show. You guys could see each other. Yeah, yeah. We saw each other.

Yeah, yeah. We were there. I literally, I was literally today years old when I learned this. Matt was like nervous to bring it up and he's like, blind day was. Blind day were blindfolded. No, seriously. I was like, are you blindfolded? He's like, you're not, you can, you can see each other when you go to life.

That's how weird. Have you never met anyone who's been on a blind date? I don't think so. Like, how does it work? Like, had you guys talked at all or did your friends just like saying? So here's crazy. It was kind of blind date, kind of not because it was. supposed to be a blind date, but then I peer-pressured my friend who knew that I was going on

the date with Grant. She knew of Grant, or like had met Grant. I peer pressure because I knew she knew who he was, and I said, who is it? Oh, I didn't even know who it was. No, I had no idea who was. And then she told me, and then I stopped him on Instagram. Oh, okay. So were you fully blind? I was blind because they said, don't look at her Instagram. And they just like, hey, her name's Maddie, but here's the crazy thing. Six months before I got set up with Maddie on a blind date, she walks into the church I was working at. I look at her. She's wearing these Jordans.

I was like, who is this girl? And my friend was like, oh, that's Maddie. She went on this show. Like, don't even bother. And, like, said I didn't have a shot. I was like, come on, bro. And same friend goes on this podcast and is like, hey, you should go on a blind date with my friend. I come home for Thanksgiving break.

And he goes, Grant, you got to go on a date December 3rd. It was like November. He's like, December 3rd, you can't say no. I was like, dude, what? And he literally goes, Grant, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And I was like, I'm going. He's like, okay, her name is Maddie. It's the girl you saw walk in, but don't look up anything.

And so, like, I knew who she was, but that was the extent. I didn't, like, know anything else. Okay. So. Yeah. But I just, I had this crazy feeling. Like, whenever he came to pick me up, I had, like, the craziest feeling. I just was like, this feels different.

And I, like, never get nervous. And I was so nervous. Like, I just was, like, sweating. I was, like, asking my roommate. She was chewing her gum, like. Smacking my gum. I was like, do I look okay? Do I need a change?

Like, I was, like, I was. So nervous. And I was too. He came and picked me up. And one thing my dad is always so big on. Gentlemen. He's like, whoever you date, they better open your door. Okay.

So I, it's like ingrained in me. I'm like, okay, I'm testing. Like, he's got to open my door. So we go outside to the car. He's like so like in his head nervous. He doesn't open my door, my car door. So I'm just sitting here and I'm like, I'm so I'm going to open my door and I close it. Open my door when we get there.

And I'm like, so I'm already kind of like, ah. Off to a bad start. I opened your door when we got there, right? I can't remember. Yeah, for sure. But I do know the first one. You did not. And it was like, listen, I'm raising the south.

I'm Dallas. So I'm like always opening up doors. Yeah. And literally in my head, I'm thinking, open up a door, open up her door. As we're walking to the car and just go straight to mine. And then I hit one of these. So I'm like X.

You know when you're stuck in the, and you try and reach over to open up their door like that? I hit one of those. You feel like kind of be cool. So he's like, ah. Anyways, we. I addressed it immediately. I said, listen, I'm so sorry.

your door. It wasn't like I just forgot. We get to the restaurant and we sit down and I'm just like his joy was so evident. Like he just was like so joyful and the way he talked to like the waitress and the waiter like it just I like him. Like he's he's special. Like the way he's like just so kind with everyone and full of joy. I was just like so drawn to it. And as we began to like share our stories and just like what God had done in our life and what we felt called to do with our life. I just felt a radical, like, piece of, I'm going to marry this man. And I literally texted my mom. He, like, goes up to go to the bathroom. And I texted my mom and I was like, I'm going to marry him. Like, this is my husband. And this was like an hour into the date.

Meanwhile, he's like, I'm sweating thinking the date is going just okay. I'm like, I'm not doing that good. And she's going, mom, I just found the man I'm going to marry. And that, I feel like is different than guys and girls. I'm like, oh my gosh, she liked me. Is this okay? But anyways, we got in the car afterwards and I was like, hey, you want to listen to like some Drake and drive around the car or drive around the city? And she literally had been like, hey, here's what I want in the husband I'm going to marry. You know what's like, you know like the weird like little things that you're like, this isn't like a deal breaker, but this would just be like cherry on top like so sweet. One of those things was like I just love to like turn on some fun music, drive around and

just like sing, have a good time, you know, laugh, chill. And I randomly had said like a couple weeks prior. I was like, it would just be so sweet if like I went on a date and, you know, the guy was like, you want to just drive around and listen to like some fun music. I literally said that. And then he looks at me as soon as we get in the car and he's like, you want to just drive around and like listen to some music. Which song? Which Drake song was it? Man, this was so that was like, that was like nothing was the same album. Okay. That's where we went. We went, we went way back. We were nothing was the same. But we did stop halfway through and we prayed for Drake. We did. We did. Really? We just prayed for him.

What did you pray for Drake? What did you ask? Well, we prayed for his salvation. Like, I don't know what he's going through, but here's what we do know, Matt and Abby. Here's what we do know. That you can have the whole world and be so empty. And so you see that.

And y'all see that. You're around so many people that have influence. And you can have, I grew up and, you know, my dad went from homeless with his mom to sold his company for $3.2 billion. And I'm kind of leaning into a serious moment. Yeah. And I remember him telling me, he said,

Grant, I was homeless at the park with my mom. I went home after selling. in my company for $3 billion. Yeah. He said, the feeling didn't change. Everyone told me when I got here, I would be happy and satisfied. He said, money and success only allows for you to look for happiness in a better neighborhood. And he said, I went home to the hotel and I remember everyone went out to party and I'm home

alone. He said, all I could do was pick up a pen and write down the next thing I could accomplish. Yeah. And so for two to three years, he was buying the houses, doing the things, everything that his heart, he was abandoned by his dad. And so he said, I know it's going to fix all this. And it was going to be money. And in the midst of all that, he's just like searching.

And money satisfies for a while until it doesn't. And so he hits this point. My mom gets radically saved. And she starts telling him about a heavenly father. And he's like, I want nothing to do with a heavenly father. Because he's like, my father abandoned me and abused me. Yeah. And this is crazy.

And I've told a story before, but my dad was born out of rape. So 15-year-old mom gets raised. can't afford the hospital, so it hasn't been in a parking lot. Those families lived on the same set of land divided by a fence, and they say, hey, we're not going to let this get out. Y'all are getting married. So she had to marry into that situation. So that dad that did that to that mom, to his mom, he's now looking at this baby, my dad,

as like, you ruined my life. So he would leave for a month, come home, beat him. You ruined my life. So my dad grew up with this just like whole of abandonment. Well, anyways, he got everything the world says should be happy. That's the American dream, homeless to billionaire. And he's sitting in this moment, and mom gets radically saved. She's like, oh, wait, Jesus Christ, this is what I was made for.

Starts telling my dad about a heavenly father. He's like, I'm out. Two years into that, he opens up his Bible to say, hey, I'm going to show you how stupid this is. I'm going to prove you wrong. And begins to read this Bible, and God gets his foot in the door. And at 3 a.m., the Cayman Islands, my dad, here's a. this debate on the TV. He didn't turn it on. It just came on. And it's a Christian, atheist, Muslim, and a Hindu, all the religions. And the Christian goes, hey, we all agree upon one thing. There's a higher

power. But here's where we disagree is how to get there. He says, let's say all of you are right. Every other religion, let's say you're right. I still get in. I live the same life that you do. I still get into y'all's heaven. But let's say I'm right. The Jesus Christ said, I'm the way, the truth in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He said, there's a tremendous this downside for you. My dad was raised by his uncle who would host these underground poker tournaments. He would deal my dad hands all day and make him calculate the percentage of what his hand would be. In this moment, the calculations of the percentages come into his mind. He gets on his knees at 3 a.m. gives his life to Christ. And that's when our family just like shifted

from we have things of the world to oh wait there's more all that to say i went so deep to say drizzy drake who i love can have the whole world and my dad actually has and i don't want this is not arrogant at all he has maybe more money than drake but here's the crazy thing is everybody at that level is searching for something more this is an ad by better help today i actually went to therapy and I thought it was really good to talk through this idea of sitting in discomfort because something I've been learning from therapy is it's okay to be uncomfortable. You don't have to put a smile on your face or crack a joke to make the discomfort in your life go away. It's okay to like let your body and your mind process that discomfort.

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time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash unplanned podcast. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash unplanned podcast. It's widely known online that you come from a family where your dad's been very successful. What do people get wrong about you because of that? What are like assumptions people make about you? Yeah, dude. A lot. It's like how much time do you have? That's a great question, man.

I love people genuinely. Like, I feel like I really just love people, and I forget that that's a part of my life. Not in a way that I don't, like, really, really appreciate and love, and I'm so grateful. But I forget that at times I walk in a room and that's attached to me. Like, I really do. I think I've just had to learn that, like, you will be misunderstood. People will miss assign things. People will put things on you, and that's okay.

And it's not even wrong that they do. just like her and I both talked about that when we meet people at times it feels like we start down here and it's almost like hey prove to me that you're legit yeah I'm not sure how y'all feel about all that anyways I'd love to hear y'all's perspective through success and stuff but uh I always talk to mattie about this you can either be lebron on the calves when he first got drafted or you can be lebron on the heat and if y'all are you're going to have to really explain sports right You know LeBron James.

Yes. We know LeBron. Not personally. So, yeah, not personally. I, uh, anyways, it's a long story. You know LeBron James? We have a moment. I grabbed his calf.

What? Yeah, his calf. Anyways. Well, no, you have to explain the calf. No, no, what? You touched LeBron. I didn't even know the story. Let me tell the story really quick.

Um, LeBron James was from Akron, Ohio. Okay. He was dubbed the chosen one. On the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16, he was Ohio's guy. Cleveland, Ohio, the basketball team. him they drafted him. So he's like this hometown hero and he was 18 years old in the NBA. He was so free young, joyful, happy. When he was 25 after he had been Cleveland's guy for so long, he decided I'm leaving Cleveland and I'm going to play for the Miami Heat. Now everyone who loved LeBron

all of a sudden there was all these viral videos, they were burning his jersey, you're a traitor, because he was going to play with some other superstars in Miami. Now LeBron, who's a human being, went from the world loving you to the world hating you. You became villain. He changed his number from 23 to 6. He started wearing this dark mask. He had like broken his nose. He put on this all black mask and literally started playing into what everyone was saying about him. You could literally see it on him. You saw like a free kid to like a really hurt kind of like villain. And I always tell Maddie. I said, hey, when we play into what people want to say about us, what they want to assume about us, you can put the hood on and go, well, forget it. If that's who you think I am, then, like, I'll be that. And that's extreme, but I can get really hurt from hearing what some people say. And you can almost put the hood on and go, you don't... Like, forget you.

You don't get me. Like, no one gets me. Dangerous place to be. I always want to be in a place of, I'm going to love you with my joy. Kill them with kindness, is that kind of phrase. Like, all that is say, I think there's times I can be misunderstood. with that. And also I get it. I get it, man. Like, hey, I get the stuff where you go, it's easy to be a Christian when you have money or what do you have to worry about, go cry in

the Ranger. I get all that, man. I'm not fighting that at all. And there are different problems. And no one is exempt from pain. And no one is exempt from teary-eyed nights and struggles, you know. They may look different, but there's weight all around. And so I would just say, like, I have compassion and grace for that. I don't hold. I don't know. There's no anger at anybody and also I do want people to see the joy and the love and the genuine like I'm just a relational optimistic person and that can try and make me like you can't trust anybody you can't and I just don't want to ever like flow out of that place well and grant is just so opposite of like everything that like when you hear billion or you hear wealth like he just couldn't be more

opposite of what is typically associated with that. And he could stay in the same t-shirt from H&M or Walmart every single day. He finds the person in the room that, like, everybody else overlooks. And, you know, everybody's trying to find the most important person in the room to, like, climb the social ladder. He finds the person that everybody else overlooks. And he loves on them. He gets to know them. He, like, continues a relationship with them. He genuinely lives his life to serve people and to help people and that is constantly at the forefront of his mind and so like i'm just so grateful that i am led by a man who like even if he was born into that and he like you know you can't control necessarily what you're born into but like he was born into wealth but yet he doesn't

live his life as if that is even a factor we try not to live our life like that's a factor and just continuously position ourselves in a place of like how can we give how can we live um as servants how can we um continue to just you know give what's been given to us back and i'm so grateful thanks for saying all that and there's so many benefits like the house we live in here in tennessee so grateful you know the cars we drive so grateful there's things that i'm like yeah that's i'm so i'm so grateful about that but that doesn't define who i am yeah yeah totally yeah i mean just a little bit from our um what we've experienced as people also in the public eye i know we've had simple stuff like

there was an article about YouTubers buying houses in Hawaii and we were listed as someone that bought a house in Hawaii when we didn't. We were renting and we lived there for 11 months and we moved back. And there's also, you know, there's articles about our net worth that are, you know,

I wish they were true. They say that we are worth like way more than we are. That's generous, brother. We are, you know, we're very blessed. We're very lucky but I'm like, man, that is like 10x of what it actually is. You know, it's just Like, so, I mean, has there ever been anything like that with you guys where something's been published or a rumor that's been spread where you're like, that is literally completely

untrue and it's like, and it, you know, drives you crazy. Oh, even our wedding. I mean, people even thought our wedding, we dropped like $4 million on our wedding. Really? No. Someone said it was $4 million for the wedding. Oh, yeah. Like, people were making TikToks and reels like, okay, going off of this assessment and how much

these flowers would cost and this, this, this. And they like estimated that it was like $4 million. and I was like, wow, I mean, $4 million wedding. That's awesome. It was not our story. But we were blessed to, like, be able to do the wedding at his parents' house, you know, which just had a beautiful backyard. And so, like, our venue was free.

And, you know, it's like things like that that we were super grateful for. And I partnered with, like, you know, some different brands and stuff that were so kind and generous. But, yeah, our wedding was not four million, no, not even a fraction of that. It's funny you mentioned that because I saw like something pop up about like 1.5. And somebody was like, no, it was, it was a million dollars on flowers. people were like everyone has like their their estimation right um that's that's interesting that you that you say that because i was i was curious i was like i wonder i wonder what it was no yeah

and it's it's just yeah it's funny like people want to have opinions and like to place them and make them but i think for us what's been most important is like doing life with people that are just going to continuously keep us grounded and like call us out call out our blind spots point us back to the truth and what really matters because it's so easy to get lost in the sauce. It's so easy to, like, get caught up in what, you know, everybody else is chasing, but also to get caught up in what everybody else thinks. It's like, oh, they think this about me.

So now I got to prove myself or I got to keep and maintain, you know, this opinion about me. Like, I want to continue to be liked by everybody. I want to continue to be seen this way. Or I want to, you know, create this narrative from it. It's just so easy to get caught up and all that stuff. And it's exhausting, you know? You just will find yourself, like, constantly exhausted and overwhelmed by that.

It is hard when you get a lot of, like, comments and, and you find yourself on e-news and people magazine, all those things. Okay, wait, let me ask you guys this, because I'm actually so curious now. Like, ever since Abby and I started, you know, making money, we've been generous. We've been, like, wanting to support charities that we really love. I always thought about, man, yeah, the more money that I can make, the more I can give, the more that I can help fund charities like charity water, the more that I can give. There's also a charity called Givewell where they find the best, like the charities that are doing the most to help save lives.

per dollar spent you know because some charities you have to spend millions of dollars to save one life well give well they literally do so like much research such a maximizer by nature it usually has to it's yeah I mean so for me I was like man I just it's like it's a numbers problem I want to solve this numbers problem yeah but what I've been realizing too is like I have not been volunteering as much as I used to yeah and I'm like I need a volunteer like it doesn't matter that maybe I could be using that time to raise like to make more money than a give to charity that like I want to like actually like with my hands and my feet like volunteer like so like what's your approach to that how do you guys balance like volunteering but also giving financially to charities that

you you love when you have money it's actually a lot easier to write the check and send it and not kind of deal with any of it it's another thing to give your time and go be with somebody yeah and sit and get dirty and be with them in that that's where we found a lot of joy and it doesn't mean you got to go overseas. You know, we meet with this high school crew every Wednesday night and we love it. But I believe everyone has a gift. So my dad, man, he's so generous. Like the most generous person I know. I feel a little bit more called to be like hands and feet in it. I'd love to hear how you think through it. But we, I love your heart because there is something about giving up your time. Yeah. Because that actually, that actually hurts, you know? Not saying the money doesn't hurt,

but when you have money, you can give money and you're like, okay, like yeah, that hurts to give that. when I'm going to go spend eight hours on a Saturday morning, that's like something else that I think is beautiful. That's the most beautiful part of giving is when they're sacrificed. That's the most beautiful part of giving is when it comes with a cost. It's not hard to give when it's not hard to give, you know? And so like what does it look like for us to view it from the perspective of like if for us we're in a busier season, then maybe for us in that season, like giving time is more of a sacrifice than giving money. And so whatever that looks like, I think for us, we're continuously processing, like, what does it look like for us to give out of lack?

Where does it look like for us to give in a way that, like, hurts a little bit that, like creates a sacrifice that comes with a cost? And it's, we've not arrived. Like, we're continuing to pray through that and continuing to ask that question. Like, we're in the middle of figuring out that question. Literally. Like, we're like, do we sell everything? Do we move across the globe, you know? Do we live on nothing?

Do we live in a small apartment and just like, you know, like, what? What does it look like? If we have a house, you know, then we need to be, like, hosting in our house. We need to be using our house to serve people. We need to be using our house to wash feet. And, like, thinking of it in that sense of, like, if we have it, we need to give it. If we don't have it, then maybe there's a different form of giving, you know, for somebody who doesn't have access to a lot of money.

Like, that's okay. There's still so much you can give, whether it's your time, your talent, your resources, your connections, your relationships. And so we're constantly thinking through, I think, all of those different elements and processing through that. We got, like, into a rabbit hole there, but I really liked that. How did we get to, you know, conversation? I don't know. It started with, I was talking about Drake. It was praying for Drake. It was praying for Drake.

So we were on the blind date. And we were talking about your blind date. And then you guys, we were talking about your, you know where it all started? It all started with we had a really quick, we got engaged after seven months. Yes. Yes. Okay. So engaged. It was seven months. It was seven months. You guys got engaged seven months after you met. Yeah. And then three month engagement.

Three month engagement. Okay. So within 10 months, you were married. Pops is a basketball coach at Auburn was. He looked at me, he said, Grant, you can get married in October, April. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to choose, let's go October. I don't wait that long, yeah. And it was a three-month engagement.

Holy cow. I felt barely in a bit. That girl carried the weight. Yeah, it was a lot. You were stressed about the planning and everything? Oh, three months, man. I mean, we had a 400-person wedding, so it was not like a small. I think if we had like just gone and eloped, like three months, very easy.

But we planned a big old, a big old. gathering and it was it was fun i'm super glad we did it but it was stressful was any of that stress because this wasn't the first time that you were engaged right what like wasn't there i'd never been engaged oh there wasn't did i get that wait maybe i maybe i totally i boxed hold up i was like that tell me more brother because you may know a story did i like mess this up then i apologize no no you're good grant's heart started racing yeah you're like where did you get this tea like yeah i'm like this is tea well he has not ever seen any part of the bachelor of my episodes so he probably or my season. You've never seen any of the episodes. Not nothing really okay have you

ever seen like any of the bachelor never no no never okay I'm a free man brother my uh this america you know how they uh wives will joke that if they're watching like the Kardashians or the bachelor like their husbands are like why are you watching the show and then the husband that was me as the kids my mom watched the bachelor and I would be like eating like eating like cereal like late at night because my mom wouldn't let us eat like lucky charms for breakfast because that's like way too sugary but it was like my dessert rice I'm like eating cereal just like what's going on

like what's the team like oh my gosh they're they're kissing on the show I'm like mom are they like married to all these people like what's how does this work put up your heart I love it bro yeah it's so did you watch her season no I didn't see your season I think I did

I was one of the last seasons I watched but I'm like trying to figure our age difference because I'm like I remember thinking I was like everyone on The Bachelor is so much older than me I was probably the same age as like all the contestants I'm 26 I feel like I did I don't remember how old were you I was like 23 21 so then I was in college I probably did watch it I probably did

I love it like I knew everyone on the I feel like I knew of everyone were you for Maddie or against me I know she's like here's the thing I was I was I was for Maddie oh yeah oh yeah boom wait I didn't it was like a sides thing who was the other girl at it ended with well we're all friends now just off the record or just for the record do you hear that people they're all friends now they're all friends now they're cool No bad blood, we're all free. No, truly so for each other. And, yeah, her name was Han Ann. She was the second. She was on our podcast. They did get engaged.

Yeah. They did get engaged. So that's probably what you're thinking of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. So I broke up with him the day before, and then he got engaged in Han. Gotcha. But then that engagement, I certainly watched it.

Let me just say this. Like, I know this. That's facts were wrong. I know. My facts were wrong. So, like, take what I say with the greatest thought. But like, my, I saw a. a clip.

Max facts were not facts, actually. I believe it was a mother-in-law that was, like, digging into you on live TV. And I was just like, I cannot believe this is real. I wasn't even watching it live. Like, I'm sure, like, live must have been like, but, like, live was wild. How did you keep your composure? I can't even remember what aired or what, y'all. I don't even know if I watched my season all the way through.

I'll be very honest. It was traumatizing. I lost, like, 20 pounds. I was like, I don't know. I very much removed myself from all things, Bachelor. even still to the day, like, I really don't talk about it a ton. So I think there was maybe, if I remember, it's not really remembering totally clearly. I think there was maybe a moment where just essentially the conversation was like,

I don't think the two of you make sense and you belong together, which I mean, now looking back, I'm like, totally. Totally. But I think it was like probably said maybe very firmly and not in the kindest way. And then I think headed into finale, it like was more intense than I think anybody was. I just didn't expect anything other than just like him and I having an honest conversation of like is this even a possibility. And so yeah, I was very much blindsided by it, was very sad by it. But then I think as soon as it ended, I just was like, you know what? I just trust everything's

going to work out the way that it's supposed to. And we ended up, you know, for sure like not trying to continue in the relationship. And now looking back, I'm obviously so grateful for that. and the way that even that moment just like it just built up like a strength I think in me of just like even having wisdom to know like when to speak and when not to speak and like what to say and what not to say and in that moment showing that sometimes true courage is not saying anything at all and sometimes true strength is you know not defending yourself and like popping off and when I walked off stage it was really hard I for sure like went and locked myself in a bathroom and cried and you know I feel like it just built some strong skin um and there was definitely

continued, I think even from that moment, like more things I walked through with just, you know, people talking about me on podcasts and e-news and all kinds of different things. And even today, that still stuff happens. And Grant, not watching her season. Is that so that you protect yourself? I just had never seen it. And then when I came to meet her and she started telling me about all the Bachelor story, I was just like, I want to know this Maddie right here. Yeah. And so I don't think she'd want to go see my ex-girlfriend moments. Yeah. No.

That is really unique. You know what I'm saying? So I just was like, I don't think it's beneficial for either of us. Let's just like, let's start here. Totally. But tell me all about it. I want to know, you know, how was it? How did it hurt?

Yeah. How serious was it? So you've heard all about it from her. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was a really hard time for her. And, I mean, you sign all these things with Bashar that you can't say publicly. But it's like there's just really hard things that you go through on that show.

and so I think I saw someone that had some scars and so I was like hey I just want to know this Maddie something about your story talking about your first date experience like you being like texting your mom like I'm gonna marry this guy that stood out to me because you actually were just talking to a couple that were like she kind of stepped away from the relationship after a minute because she was like I didn't feel like this overwhelming like moment or like this is my husband and so it freaked her out at first

then they ended up getting back together all as well but that stood out to me and so like like kind of talk about that moment. Did your experience give you more clarity on what you were looking for? Like so that moment could be so like this is it. I had, you know, been on just, you know, a good amount of dates. Like I just, I believed on like saying yes. And so for me, like seeing lots of different good guys, godly guys.

And for me, there were just like very specific things that I was praying for and the person that I wanted to partner with for life and build a family with and do ministry with. I just hadn't seen it and I felt in some way, shape, or form in every relationship that I had been in prior to Grant, there would have been some little thing in me that felt like I was going to settle. Like, it was like, if I get in this relationship, maybe there's this aspect of a person that I really, really like, but in this area, I'm going to have to settle. Like, in this area, I'm just going to have to be okay with, you know, maybe this thing about their faith or this thing about what they want to do with their life or this, whatever, like,

I'm going to have to settle in some way, shape, or form. So there was a little bit of a lack of peace. And I'm thankful that I leaned into that lack of peace instead of ignoring it and ended those relationships with Grant. And it just felt like full confirmation of like you're not going to have to settle. Like in everything you've been praying for, this man has. That's not to say he's perfect. That's not to say our relationship was perfect. We for sure went through stuff and, you know, even broke up a time or two and our dating

experience in those short little 10 months there. But from the beginning, I felt, you know, this is someone that I want to partner with and do life with forever. Was that confusing when you guys broke up in that 10-month period? Because I'm sure, like, texting your mom, I'm going to marry this man. And then you break up. You probably are like, okay, what, like, what do I do? Oh, Matt. Listen.

Why did you break up with me? Yeah. He broke up with me. She, I'm living in Branson, Missouri in this, like, cabin serving these kids. I'm like literally scrubbing toilets. She's got two million followers. She's in this all pink Puma jumpsuit. And she's kind of...

He's judging my fashion. I love that. And there was some pride in me, if we're going to go a little spiritual, that was like, hey, mine's the more honorable route, which is like not a platform, choosing what's not flashy. And so I think when I got set up with her, because of what I had come from, which was money and wealth, I wanted nothing to... I wanted so far to be not in that world.

And I think when we were starting to come together, I was just intimidated by the platform. I also was feeling familiar things with just kind of that world of money and fame. And just like I was loving this girl, but I think I was getting fearful of like the life. And I was like, this is not what I ever envisioned for a wife, but this girl loves God and loves people. But like, man, there's some stuff with her. You walk down the street. Hey, will you hold this phone, take a picture? And all of a sudden, you're the guy holding the phone, taking a picture of your girl and some girl.

And you're like, oh, that's a weird feeling as a man I'm going to have to, like, wrestle with. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're like, oh, I'm typically the one that is known. Like, now it's her. And so I'm giving you all the details of there's all these different feelings going on inside of me, insecurity, pride. Those things are rising up. And once those were like, you know, when you purify gold, you melt it and the impurities rise and you scrape them off.

Then you have pure gold. When I dated Maddie, there is some stuff in here that because of the level and scale of her life, just kind of like heated me up. And there are some impurities that need to come out. And so when we say break up, we broke up for 12 hours, went to a love is blonde, or went to, not love is blind. Oh, Redeeming Love. Have you all read that book? Oh, yeah, I read it. We've got a crazy story. We never watched it, though.

Everyone was, I heard some criticism about it actually. We, I'll make it really quick. We shouldn't have let that deter us. We ended for a day. This was the same day I was going to meet her family. Yeah, they had flown in. They had flown in. Because I was hosting the Redeeming Love premiere.

Oh, wrong day to break up. In Dallas. I know. He breaks up with me as my family's getting into town. Are you like crying at the redeeming love premiere? I'm crying, but here's the thing. I knew who is my husband. So, you know, this is still come.

So I tell him, I'm like, yeah, I think he should still come. She's hosting in a movie theater. Like, you know, when someone grabs the mic. Yeah, she's hosting this movie. All of her best friends and family come to this theater. Grant, you should still come. Yeah, I'm like, I think you should still be there. You know, I've read the book.

I've seen, and I've already previewed the movie. I'm like, I think he could learn a thing or two about some unconditional love. So I'm like, you should come to redeeming love, knowing this is going to be good. So we're not together. We're broken up. I'm meeting mom. I'm meeting sister. Not knowing do they know.

Oh, your parents don't know. They did know, but I didn't know. Yeah, he didn't know that they did. I was like, she wouldn't tell them, Shirley. She told everybody. so I'm meeting everybody like hey mama but we're broken up and they're looking at you like who's this who's this a who's this a little that just broke up with my sweet girl all of her best friends are like and why are you here are here and next thing I know I'm sitting in this movie next to Maddie her mom and

sister watching redeeming love I'm just like it's like this story of this like radical unconditional relentless love like no matter what you've been through I'm going to pursue you to the end this man that I'm not is on the screen and and It just, it was such a, honestly, it was just so cool. Like him, I think, getting to meet just like my family and, like, my mentor was there. She had such a piece that Grant was also my husband. And so she was, like, fighting for it. She meets Grant.

She's like, how are you and Maddie doing? And Grant's like, well, actually, I just broke up with her. And she's like, what? She's like, you're coming over to mine and Zach's house tonight. And we're going to talk about this. Like, you guys are going to figure this out. And he ends up going over, like, the next day. And they just, like, really encouraged him.

and just affirmed, like, a lot of the things that even, like, I had been through and had to work through. It was really good. But by the end of the night, after the premiere, we were, like, holding hands and back together. Long story short. So when we say broke up, it was like, we had a few moments of questioning. But I think, like, and I'm not sure if y'all had that since eighth grade, I'm sure y'all had some moments. Are we sure? We were too young.

Like, it's, like, hard to even remember. Yeah. When did y'all get married? How old? I was 20. Wow. That's what I was saying. I was like, I actually might not have because I was listening.

with Matt then. So I was like, I definitely knew of you, but I like definitely don't know if I watched the whole season because Matt would never watch that stuff with me. Sorry. And I got married so young that I was like I have an out of reality TV for a while. You were 21? I was 21. Guys.

Unreal. Yeah, I was engaged at 19. That sounds even crazier, right? And was that just like y'all been dating for a long time? We did it for three years. We were like so ready. Yeah. I walked into college telling literally everyone I met that I was marrying her for a long time.

Were y'all doing YouTube stuff? before this? No, we made until I got married. Which I think, which I think is... We were like, we're basically married now, but we're going to be married in, like, a year or two. What were you doing before? We all got married. We were in college. And we were, uh, we were both working part-time just so we could afford to get married because I was like, we need to be able to financially like pay for stuff

if we're going to get married. Yeah. But we definitely had moments. I even remember the day of our rehearsal, I freaked out in my parents' kitchen. I was like, oh my gosh. I think the weight of like that decision is so heavy. You're like, oh, my, Yeah, for sure. Did you have any freakouts, like, the day before the wedding? I didn't. I think we dealt with them all before. By that, yeah.

We didn't know what a few. Was, like, was the seal right there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, but hold up. You guys met and got married within 10 months like that. That was quick. So, like, the honeymoon stage, that, like, that feeling of, like, this person is perfect, you know?

Like, that just that infatuation. How long did that last? Because I think from our experience, I want to say it was around two years that, like, I noticed that it, like, slowly faded off. Of marriage. No, no, I was just dating. So it was before we got married that the infatuation stage put it off. How long did the infatuation stage last for you guys? We're both very emotional, passionate people.

So our first, like, probably four months of dating, we were just, like, very feelings, just, like, so riding the high of, like, high school musical love. I mean, just, like, you know. And I think the wake-up calls, like, the redeeming love premiere situation was good. But then I feel like we just, we really walked through some hard stuff with, you know, public, just, like, hate when we went. public and dealing with a lot of just like hate and criticism um his grandmother passing away figuring out platform figuring out wealth a lot of stuff that just comes with that i got a surgery that you

had a surgery like he had a hip replacement as we were engaged like i think a month out from our wedding so there was just there was a lot of like really serious stuff that we walked through my my grandmother passed away so it was just like it takes away yeah it's like hey are we gonna do this or not like can we can we go through hard things together right and that's what it just kind of burned it all away. Because we say a lot, you know, I think it's very easy to say like, you know, marry your best friend, get married to the person that, you know, you have the most fun with, which is true, like, marry your best friend. And like, thinking through the thought process of like, who do I want to suffer with? Like, life is going to come with some really, really hard moments. And so who's

the person, not only that I want to laugh with and have fun with, but who's going to be the person that's going to like be stable and steady and like a rock and someone who's, you know, going to be there when we're going through really, really hard stuff. That's been huge for us, too, of just like when you go through hard things, like making sure we're leaning on the right thing and turning to the right thing. And so we saw that early on as like, yeah, who do you want to suffer with and who do you want to walk through really hard things with? Who do you want to like parent your kids one day? Like we were just, we very much saw it like we were definitely dating with the intention to marry. So it was like, okay, if our end goal is marriage, like,

you know, our first few months, I feel like was the was the like honey, fun, like high school me and then and then we were like let's you know be serious about this let's have the like serious conversations if we're actually you know going to do life together forever like let's ask the hard stuff let's dig in let's really pray let's bring in wise counsel let's ask other people what do you see on our relationship are there any blind spots that we're overlooking i think us both having our own individual community and mentorship was really important um especially when you're talking about like a fast-paced relationship um having those people and your life that can kind of, if we were like out of line, it's like, hey, well, maybe consider

this, you know? And we just had a lot of people in our life that we trusted that if they had been like, hey, I don't think y'all are ready to get married. Like, you know, maybe we would have hit the breaks for a second. But it's also a different season of life, right? Like, if we would have done that when we were 17, that's, uh, maybe even illegal. I don't know. Like, it probably depends on the state. Actually, I know. We have a friend that got married when they were 17. So I think it is legal. Where do they live? Oh, it was in Utah. Yeah. Utah makes sense. Yeah. My parents got married 18, and both of our parents had really short, like six months.

Oh, really? Yeah. Like met, married all within like six to eight months. So we've kind of like just only made sense. Yeah, like here we go. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you guys, thank you so much for coming on the pod. It was a pleasure getting to speak with you both and hear your story.

What is the best way people can connect with you? Yeah. Well, stay true podcast. Stay true podcast. One of my favorite things that I get to do and be a part of. I have a new book called Dare to Be True coming out, which is super exciting. You've written two other books. So this is my third book, and this was my passion project, the one, this was the book I, like, literally

almost quit multiple times. It was really hard and just a lot of moments of feeling too overwhelmed by it. But a message I'm so passionate about and a message that has changed my life and that I truly believe would change anybody's life who reads it. And then just Instagram, Maddie Peru, Grant. I'm off IG for a year. He's off I don't. No way. No socials, no nothing.

So you can't find your boy. You could just find my girl. Wow. Okay. Well, yeah, check out Maddie's Instagram and your book launches very soon, I'm guessing. September 23rd. Well, you guys, thank you for tuning in again for the unplanned podcast. We'll see you in the next episode.

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