Kimberly Williams-Paisley Suffered A Tragic Injury On An Early Date With Brad

Kimberly Williams-Paisley grew up in Rye, New York, one of the wealthiest communities in all of the United States. She was a city girl to whom farm life existed in lands far, far away. In a twist she could never see coming, Williams-Paisley fell for a country boy. Her alienness from that reality was such that she managed to fall off a horse when she and Brad Paisley visited another singer's home in the early days of their courtship.

Their different backgrounds may be a strange aspect of Williams-Paisley and Paisley's marriage, but it never got in the way of their love. Paisley, like many of the rest of us, first learned about Kimberly when she starred in "Father of the Bride," a film he watched with an old girlfriend. When he later wrote songs about their breakup, he had that date on his mind. That's how he got the idea of asking Williams-Paisley to star in the "I'm Gonna Miss Her" music video in 2001. "Even though I didn't know if she was married, divorced, or just out of rehab," he told Good Housekeeping in 2010.

No amount of cultural differences could dampen the spark between them. After tying the knot in 2003, Williams-Paisley left California behind and moved to Tennessee. She had some adjusting to do but eventually fell in love with Southern culture — small talk and all. "I remember thinking, 'Why are we talking right now? Don't we both have to go places?'" she told Southern Living. The learning curve was steep, though.

Even though Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Brad Paisley keep their love private, early in their relationship, Williams-Paisley wanted to make an impression when she first visited her boyfriend. However, she only managed to expose her unfamiliarity with anything country-related. For starters, Paisley informed her they would be going to the legendary country star George Jones' house, only to be met with a confused look. "He had to explain who George Jones was," Williams-Paisley said on the Today show in March 2025.

It didn't stop there. Someone suggested that they go horseback riding in the woods nearby, territory the Hallmark star was uncomfortable with. But she went anyway. "I actually fell off of the horse and broke a rib," she told Craig Melvin. "So that was not a great start." She made a swift recovery and continued to invest in the country boy and his lifestyle. She wasn't going to let a small injury get in the way. After all, Williams-Paisley has overcome plenty of tragedies.

Besides, the experience of falling in love with someone from a different background prepared her for her work as a TV presenter. When Williams-Paisley took on the role of host of "Farmer Wants a Wife" in 2024, she knew she had what it took. "Because I'm a city girl who embraced the country life when I married my husband twenty-one years ago, I related to the allure of a farmer for these ladies," she said (via Taste of Country).