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You’ve seen them on the Grammy stage. You’ve heard those haunting, four-part harmonies on "Girl Crush" and "Pontoon." But when you see the way they look at each other—or the way they've stuck together for over twenty-five years—it’s only natural to wonder if Little Big Town is married to each other. People ask this all the time. Honestly, it’s one of the most googled things about the band.
The short answer? Half of them are.
It’s not some weird "everyone is married to everyone" situation. It’s actually much more grounded than that. Out of the four members—Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Phillip Sweet—two of them are a married couple. The other two are married to people outside of the band. It’s a dynamic that would probably destroy most groups, yet somehow, it’s the very thing that keeps them from imploding.
The Secret Marriage That Changed Everything
For the first few years of the band’s existence, nobody was dating. They were just four people trying to make it in a town that didn't know what to do with a vocal group that didn't have a lead singer.
Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook are the ones. They are the heart of the "is Little Big Town married to each other" rumor. But they didn't start out that way. When the band formed in 1998, Karen was actually married to someone else. It wasn't until after her divorce that things started to shift.
You can hear the shift if you listen to their older records. There's a certain tension.
They kept it professional for a long time. Then, in 2006, they shocked a lot of fans by revealing they had eloped. They didn't make a big splashy announcement on a red carpet. They just went and did it. Jimi has said in interviews that there was always an underlying connection, but they were afraid to mess up the band's chemistry. Imagine the risk. If you break up, the band is over. Your career is over. Your friendships are over.
They took the leap anyway. They have a son now, Elijah Dylan Westbrook, born in 2010. If you watch them perform "Your Side of the Bed," you aren't seeing acting. You’re seeing two people who have navigated the messy, beautiful reality of working, traveling, and parenting together for decades.
What About Kimberly and Phillip?
This is where the confusion usually happens. Because Karen and Jimi are married, people assume Kimberly Schlapman and Phillip Sweet must be the "other" couple.
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They aren't. Not even close.
Kimberly and Phillip are more like siblings. Kimberly’s personal story is actually quite heartbreaking and eventually, incredibly redemptive. She was originally married to Steven Roads, who was actually the band's first lawyer. He was a huge part of their early success. Tragically, he passed away from a heart attack in 2005. It was a devastating blow to the whole group.
Eventually, Kimberly found love again with Stephen Schlapman. They married in 2006—the same year Karen and Jimi got hitched. They have two daughters, Daisy and Dolly.
Then there’s Phillip Sweet. He married Rebecca Arthur, a business owner and stylist, in 2007. They have a daughter named Penelopi.
So, while the band feels like one giant family, the legal marriage licenses only link two of the four members. The rest of the "family" vibe comes from surviving the lean years. We’re talking about years where they had no record deal, were dropped from labels, and had to clean houses or sell insurance just to keep the lights on. That kind of shared trauma creates a bond that looks a lot like marriage to an outsider.
How Being Married to a Bandmate Actually Works
Most people couldn't spend twenty-four hours a day with their spouse. Now imagine doing it on a tour bus. With two other people. And a crew.
Karen and Jimi have been open about the fact that it isn't always easy. You don't get to "leave work at the office" when your office is a stage in front of 20,000 people and your coworker is the person you’re arguing with about who forgot to buy milk.
They've developed rules.
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One of the biggest misconceptions about Little Big Town being married to each other is that it creates a "two against two" dynamic. It doesn't. They’ve gone on record saying that they make decisions as a foursome. If Karen and Jimi disagree on a song choice, they don't necessarily team up. Sometimes Jimi sides with Kimberly and Phillip.
- Communication is brutal: They use a democratic voting system.
- The "Bus Rule": They’ve had to learn when to give each other physical space in a very cramped environment.
- Family First: They famously structured their tours so their kids could be with them, creating a sort of rolling daycare.
Why the "Married" Rumor Persists
It’s the harmonies.
When you hear them sing, the blend is so tight it sounds like DNA. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because they’ve spent thousands of hours learning the cadence of each other’s voices. When Karen and Jimi sing a duet, there is an undeniable intimacy.
People see that and want it to be a romance. In this case, it actually is.
But there’s also the way they support each other through grief. When Kimberly lost her first husband, the band didn't just give her space; they carried her. They did the same when Phillip went through his own personal struggles. In the country music world, where solo stars often flame out or change bands every few years, this level of stability is freakish. It’s rare.
It makes people think, "They must be married," because we don't have many other words for that kind of loyalty.
The Business of Being Little Big Town
From a brand perspective, the "married" element is actually a bit of a marketing tightrope. They aren't a "couple act" like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. They are a band.
If they lean too hard into the Karen/Jimi marriage, they risk alienating the importance of Kimberly and Phillip. They’ve been very careful to maintain that balance. You’ll notice their album covers usually feature all four of them in a way that doesn't highlight one pair over the other.
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It’s a masterclass in band management.
They've navigated the shift from being a "vocal group" to being icons of the genre. They’ve won more CMA Vocal Group of the Year awards than almost anyone else. They’ve done it by staying together when it would have been much easier to quit.
Reality Check: The Four-Way Marriage
In a 2017 interview with Us Weekly, the band joked that they are essentially in a four-way marriage. They share bank accounts (in a business sense), they share meals, they share successes, and they share failures.
If you're looking for the "scandalous" version of the story, you won't find it. There are no secret affairs or messy divorces within the group. There is just a lot of history.
What You Should Know If You’re a Fan
If you're heading to a show or buying their latest vinyl, keep these facts in your back pocket so you can settle the "is Little Big Town married to each other" debate at the dinner table:
- Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook are the only two members married to each other. They married in 2006.
- Kimberly Schlapman is married to Stephen Schlapman.
- Phillip Sweet is married to Rebecca Arthur.
- The band has remained the exact same four people since 1998. That is unheard of in Nashville.
The longevity of the group isn't just about the music. It's about the fact that they've figured out how to integrate their real lives—marriages, kids, tragedies—into their professional lives without letting the two collide and explode.
Next time you hear "Better Man," listen to the backing vocals. That’s not just a studio track. That’s four people who have lived a whole lot of life together, two of whom go home to the same house, and all of whom consider themselves family.
To truly understand the band, watch their 2014 Grand Ole Opry induction. You can see the genuine affection. It's not a performance. Whether they are legally married or just "band married," the bond is clearly unbreakable.
Practical Takeaways for Fans
- Check the credits: Look at how often they co-write together. It’s a glimpse into their shared brain.
- Follow their socials: Kimberly often posts about her cooking and her own family, which helps distinguish her life from the Fairchild/Westbrook household.
- Listen to "The Daughters": It’s a great example of how their shared experiences as parents (to mostly daughters) inform their songwriting.
The mystery is solved, but the fascination remains. They are a rare breed in a town that usually breaks people apart. Instead, they just kept building a bigger table.