LeAnn Rimes has been a household name since her song "Blue" debuted when she was just 13 years old, and her husband of 12 years, Eddie Cibrian, is a celebrity in his own right. While LeAnn is known for her incredible vocals, Eddie is famous for his acting skills in dramatic roles like CSI: Miami and Third Watch more light-hearted moments in the Netflix show Country Comfort, Home Economics, and A Christmas Mystery.
Cibrian and the Grammy Award-winning singer met on the set of the 2009 TV movie Northern Lights. The couple got engaged on Christmas Eve in 2010. They’ve since developed many sweet seasonal traditions as a couple—one of which played an unexpectedly big role in their ceremony. “During our wedding vows, my husband vowed to watch Love Actually with me every year,” Rimes told Country Living. Goals!
Here’s everything you need to know about Rimes’s relationships.
Rimes and Cibrian both have previous marriages.
LeAnn Rimes met Dean Sheremet in 2001, when he was working as one of her backup dancers at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She later told InStyle (per E!) that after one date, she knew “this is the guy I want to marry.”
The couple tied the knot a year later, in 2002, but separated in 2009. Their divorce was finalized in June of 2010, amidst reports that Rimes had been having an affair with actor Eddie Cibrian, her co-star on the TV movie Northern Lights. Rimes later acknowledged that the reports were true, telling People: "I take responsibility for everything I've done. I hate that people got hurt, but I don't regret the outcome."
Cibrian married model and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville in 2001. The couple divorced in October 2010.
Then she fell in love with Eddie Cibrian.
After meeting in 2009 on the set of Northern Lights, Rimes and Cibrian became engaged the following year on Christmas Eve, and married in April of 2011 at a private home in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony took place in front of 40 guests, including Cibrian’s sons from his previous marriage. According to E!, the wedding was kept so tightly under wraps that the guests believed they were attending an engagement party.
The couple now regularly shares sweet Instagram posts to celebrate their wedding anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, National Kissing Day, and pretty much every other romantic occasion you can imagine. Rimes told Country Living that she and Cibrian also take their Christmas rituals extremely seriously: “My husband and I take the kids to visit Santa and take an annual family photo with him, no matter how old they get," she said. "Santa is always a must!”
LeAnn is a stepmom to Eddie's sons.
Though Rimes and Cibrian don't have children together, she is stepmother to his two sons, Mason, 20, and Jake, 16, from his previous marriage to former Brandi Glanville.
Rimes admitted to ET that she sometimes wishes for more kids. "I get it every once in a while," she said. "I'm trying to figure out what it is that stirs it. I haven't figured that out yet, because every once in a while I'll be like, 'What is making me want a baby, like, right now?' I haven't figured that out yet, but it hasn't stuck. Maybe one day... I mean, I love my stepkids and I've got plenty on my plate with them. So, I'm cool at the moment."
It seems like they were destined from the beginning.
Though it was sometimes a rocky road, it seems Rimes and Cibrian were always meant to be. The proof? She revealed that she and Cibrian actually crossed paths when she was a teenager.
“We don’t remember meeting each other,” she told ET . “There is a photo of it, clearly, and it is odd. We both were like, ‘Wait, what?’ I think he was 23, I was 14 at the time, and he was doing Young and the Restless. He found that right after we had worked together. He was just digging through some photos in his garage and found it.”
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
