Luke Bryan is more than a country star and an American Idol judge. He is also a loving father, husband and uncle. In 2014, after a family tragedy, Luke began raising his sister’s son and daughter.
“They never found out what happened to Kelly. “No autopsy, no medical examiner, no one could figure it out,” Luke told People magazine in 2013.
Sadly, Ben also died unexpectedly in 2014. He was in a car accident. Thiel was 16 at the time, and Chris and Jordan were both in college.
Luke and Caroline immediately decided to let the three of them into the house. “We never thought too much about it,” Caroline told ABC in 2017.
So Thiel moved to Nashville with his family. “You wake up one day and you’re raising a teenager,” Luke said.
The experience was “difficult” but very enjoyable given the circumstances and the family wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Luke Bryan grew up in rural Georgia with his younger brother and two sisters. Unfortunately, the star’s family experienced several tragic events in his life.
In 2000, when Luca was a teenager, his older brother Chris died in a car accident. Seven years later, her sister Kelly died unexpectedly of unknown causes, leaving her husband Ben to care for their three children.
After losing his two brothers and starting his music career in Nashville, Luke married his college sweetheart, Caroline.
The couple has been married for 11 years and has two children: Thomas Boyer, 11, and Christopher Tatum, 8. But in 2014, the family suffered another major loss.
Luke’s brother-in-law Ben also died, leaving his son and two daughters orphans. Teal Cheshire was 16 at the time. Chris was 19 and Jordan was 22. Caroline says she never doubted what she and Luke would do. They treated their three children as if they were their own.
“We never thought too much about it,” he told ABC in 2017. “You know, it wasn’t something he and I should have discussed. “Should we buy this?” I just did it.”
But it was a big adjustment for the whole family. Teel came to live in Nashville with Luca, Caroline and their two sons.
“I woke up one day and raised a teenager,” Luca previously told People. “And it’s difficult because the most important thing for Til is to give you the right advice and understand that you’re talking to a mature person.”
He described the balance between rigor and friendship that he tries to maintain with Thiel.
“I have to act like a parent. If he does something, I’m in trouble, but I want to be friends with him,” she explained. “But now we’re friends,” Luke told ABC. “Until he told me… When I met him I was like, ‘Okay, you’re raising me.’ Don’t raise me!”
In fact, raising a teenager is different from raising a toddler. For example, there is an opportunity to enter social networks.
“We have to look at the numbers and look at Instagram and Snapchat and not let him do that all day,” Luke told People. But overall, the blended family has made a very good deal out of a dire situation.
“Obviously my grandchildren didn’t ask me,” Luca told People magazine in 2015. “We’re happy with it as it is, because we don’t want to seem like they like it, but we’re proud to do what we think is right,” he added.
Luke described him and Thiel as “friends”. He also said that his young sons can watch and learn all the cool new viral dances from Til. “Dab and all that. And Nenae. He’s learning everything,” he told People. “That’s what they do when they hit the ball in the yard.”
Boys like to fish and play board games together. Last year, Luke played all three kids in the What Makes You Country video.
Luke admitted in an interview with ABC that he and his family are sometimes “angry about why this happened”. And with so many tragedies that have occurred over the years, who can blame them?
But through it all, they try to stay positive and have built a stable family life for these children.
“If we can take something positive out of this, maybe we can be a positive inspiration to people who are going through this,” Luca told the ABC. “You just have to tear up and play the hand you’re dealt.”
