Miranda Lambertis finally content on her pursuit of happiness.
After years of highs and lows, the country superstar has found steady footing both personally and professionally.
“Finding happiness and being at peace with yourself, it’s a long journey, but I’ve really gotten to a great place,” Lambert, 38, says in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. “My manager’s been good about asking me to ‘sit in my life.’ Country music is a huge part of my life, but it’s not fully who I am.”
Miranda Lambert.Jeff Lipsky
For more on PEOPLE’s cover story with Miranda Lambert, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
But these days, the Grammy winner is prioritizing time off, too — and she’s ready for a vacation.
“It’s really about balance of life and work for me right now,” she says. “I’ve been touring for 20 years, and I’ve been everywhere and seen nothing — just a lot of parking lots. I’m trying to use my downtime to really experience life. I always get the boring months off, and I’m like, ‘Can I just have a sunshiny month off?’ So the first of July, I’m out of here, and I’m takingmy Airstream.”
Miranda Lambert on the cover of PEOPLE.
Also along for the ride: her husband Brendan McLoughlin, 30, a retired NYPD officer whom shewed in January 2019after a whirlwind, three-month romance. With McLoughlin, Lambert has found the stability she’s long craved — and that may have felt out of reach during the tumultuous years following her 2015divorcefromBlake Shelton, as her subsequent romances drew criticism on social media and made her a tabloid target.
Lambert says she began to reevaluate her life eight years ago.
“When I turned 30, I started to take life in a new direction and really start to understand myself a little better,” she says. “And going through hard things obviously makes you get to know yourself better. When you get broken down pretty good, you look at the mirror and you go, ‘I have to spend some time with me, learn who I am and what I want.’ I got to a really good place with myself. Then I met my husband.”
Today, Lambert is happier than ever. Just ask her mom!
“One look at her tells that story,” Beverly June Lambert says. “She is comfortable and confident, and it shows. Brendan is a good example of a partner. He walks beside her, not beneath or above her. Navigating a new marriage, a pandemic, touring, career changes, family health crises, etc. isn’t easy. But there they are just killin' it.”
Brendan McLoughlin and Miranda Lambert.Jeff Lipsky
When they’re not on the road, Lambert and McLoughlin spend time between her Nashville-area farm (which their six horses, five dogs, two cats, two goats, two miniature horses and a handful of chickens also call home) and New York, where McLoughlin has a 3-year-old son from a past relationship.
Despite the public growing pains she experienced, Lambert has no regrets, though she would have some words of wisdom for her younger self just starting out in Nashville: “It’s going to be a wild ride, hon. Take the reins, and hold on tight.”
Adds Lambert: “Without the hard stuff — the chaos, the crazy schedule, the heartbreak, the falling in love, the falling out of love — I wouldn’t be who I am. I’m thankful for the lessons, even though they hurt at the time.”
For more onMiranda Lambert, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
