What Lauren Alaina Blames For Her Split From Her Ex-Fiancé Alex Hopkins

Lauren Alaina is happy and in love. The country music star, who rose to fame as the runner-up of "American Idol's" Season 10 in 2011, is engaged to her sales executive boyfriend Cam Arnold after two and a half years of dating. She shared the exciting news on Instagram shortly after announcing her engagement at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in November 2022. "BRIDE be dang'd, y'all. My best friend, @arnold.cam, asked me to marry him, and I announced it at my favorite place in the world, @opry," Alaina wrote. Adding, "I didn't know happiness and excitement like this existed. I can't wait to be Mrs. Cameron Scott Arnold."

The "Road Less Traveled" singer was previously engaged to her high school sweetheart Alex Hopkins from July 2018 to January 2019. In a statement confirming their breakup, Alaina said she and Hopkins decided to end their engagement after realizing how much they'd grown apart over the last six years, per People. "We are now in a place where we are each looking forward to starting our own fresh, new chapters of lives," she wrote, adding that she and Hopkins still love and respect each other regardless. "This has not been an easy decision, but we both feel it is the right decision."

For his part, Hopkins said he and Alaina fought really hard to make their relationship work. However, "Sometimes, what we want and what God has for us is 2 totally different things," he said. "And that's okay." Since then, Alaina has shared more details regarding the split.

Appearing on Ashley Eicher and Hunter Kelly's "All Our Favorite People" podcast, Lauren Alaina spoke further about her broken engagement with Alex Hopkins, saying that the pair had been broken up for some time when they announced their split in January 2019. Together since 2012, Alaina said it was during their brief engagement that she and Hopkins realized they wanted different things in life. "We started dating at 17, and we're now 24 years old," she said at the time. "When we got engaged, it got really real. Not that it wasn't real before, but it was just like, 'Oh.'" She added, "When you start planning your entire future and you're not agreeing on things, it's very hard. But he was all I knew, and I was all he knew."

Though they tried their best to make their relationship work, both Alaina and her ex-fiance knew they'd reached the end of the road. "Like we really tried to figure it out. But I think we both knew it wasn't right," she said. Regardless of how things ended between them, the "Getting Good" singer said she will always have love and respect for Hopkins. "I'll love him until the day that I die," she said, while also stressing that she has no regrets about their relationship. Despite things not working out, she learned a lot during the time they were together and recognizes that while not all relationships are built to last, they're no less meaningful because of it. 

Not long after splitting from Alex Hopkins, Lauren Alaina met her current fiance Cam Arnold. Speaking to ET at the CMA Fest in June, the "American Idol" alum shared that they crossed paths backstage at one of Luke Bryan's "Crash My Playa" music festival in Mexico. "He's friends with Luke's niece and her husband, so he was backstage and we were at the taco stand," she recalled. "And apparently, I ate my tacos really fast and he was like, 'Nobody's gonna take those tacos away from you!' First thing he ever said to me, and that was when I knew." It was definitely love at first sight for Arnold as well, who proceeded to ask for her phone number and told his friend back home that he'd just met the woman he was going to marry. Luckily for him, Alaina felt exactly the same way. She also gushed about her future husband. "If you spend five minutes with him, you'd be like, 'I get it,'" she said, adding, "He's very funny... And hot!"

As for Hopkins, Alaina's former fiance also moved on after their split and is now engaged to his girlfriend Gabriel Caroline Rayburn. He announced their engagement via Instagram a day after he proposed to Rayburn during their trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi on September 2. "Last night my best friend and love of my life said YES. Gabriel Caroline Rayburn I love you so much and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!!" he wrote.