On Friday, February 18, Hannah Lee Fowler filed for divorce from her husband of almost five years, the pop-country star Sam Hunt. As far as celebrity divorces go, the filing was particularly brutal: She accused Hunt of inappropriate marital conduct, “cruel and inhuman treatment,” and adultery. She also revealed she is pregnant with the couple’s first child, due in May. But just two hours after her lawyers submitted the filing, they withdrew it completely. Hmm. What’s going on here?
“Drinkin’ Too Much”
According to the tabloids, Hunt, 37, and Fowler met at the University of Alabama sometime before 2014. (Her current age is a matter of some dispute; various celebrity wiki sites list it anywhere from 30 to 36.) She reportedly inspired much of Hunt’s first album, and he named it after her hometown of Montevallo, Alabama. He later apologized for this gesture in the 2017 hit “Drinkin’ Too Much,” which goes like this:
“I’m sorry I named the album Montevallo / I’m sorry people know your name now / And strangers hit you up on social media / I know you want your privacy / And you got nothing to say to me / but I wish you’d let me pay off your student loans / With these songs you gave me”
It seems like that worked, because Hunt and Fowler got engaged in January of 2017 and married three months later. (Hunt reportedly popped the question looking over the Sea of Galilee in Israel.)
“Body Like a Back Road”
Just before their wedding, Hunt serenaded Fowler with his biggest hit “Body Like a Backroad” at the ACM Awards. It’s an extremely catchy song that doesn’t sound quite as good live unfortunately:
After that, things were great (?) until Hunt was arrested for a DUI in Nashville in 2019. According to the arrest report, he was driving on the wrong side of the road and had a BAC twice the legal limit when he was pulled over. He later tweeted an apology and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor DUI charges.
“Cop Car”
After this brush with the law, Hunt started talking to reporters more about his amazing wife. In July 2021, he said during a KISS Country radio interview that he wanted to start a family with Fowler. “We've been talking about it for a while, but we've really started thinking about it seriously here these past few months, so that's on the agenda right now,” he said. “And I'm hoping that we'll have some good news sooner than later.”
Based on Fowler’s May due date, she could have been pregnant already when Hunt made this pronouncement. But the good times didn’t last: When Fowler filed for divorce last Friday, she made it clear she plans to raise the child separately from Hunt. According to Page Six, Fowler requested primary custody of the unborn baby as well as “respective separate property” and “transitional alimony, rehabilitative alimony, and alimony in future.”
She also said she cannot continue to live with Hunt, claiming that he “is guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct toward the spouse [that] renders cohabitation unsafe or improper.”
But then her lawyers withdrew the filing. As of this morning, however, it’s been reported that Fowler’s legal team resubmitted the filing in a different county in Tennessee, so perhaps the original issue was a clerical error. Hunt, meanwhile, has yet to respond to the filing.
