Why did Garth Brooks spilt from first wife Sandy Mahl? A look at singer's relationship before Trisha Yearwood
When Garth Brooks' rise to fame was showcased in the A&E documentary 'Garth Brooks: The Road I'm On', it involved in-depth interviews with those closest to the 'Friends in Low Places' singer, including his ex-wife Sandy Mahl. Garth and Mahl were married between 1986 and 2001. Mahl is a talented songwriter herself and is credited on Brooks' songs 'I've Got a Good Thing Going' and 'That Summer'. She's also the mother of their three daughters, Taylor, August and Allie.
Looking back on his earlier days in the music industry, Brooks told Us Weekly that he was constantly traveling during his first marriage with things growing increasingly difficult after he achieved stardom.
Mahl said, "People constantly wanting your attention and yanking and pulling on him. He'd be gone eight to 10 weeks at a time. He'd come home, there would be number-one parties, or shows, or CMAs, or ACMs, American Music Awards, so it was constantly going. But we both grew apart really, really quickly. I don't think either of us had stopped to think about how this would change our lives." After watching Mahl tell her side of the story, Garth said he was "really surprised".
He said, "She was phenomenal. I was gone so much on the road during our marriage, there were things I guess she was trying to tell me that I didn’t hear until this biography. It’s rare you get to hear the other side. I just saw her and I think I hugged her harder than I ever have now that I know things that either I didn’t hear or that she didn't say until now."
Garth expressed a similar sentiment when speaking to Fox News saying, "I heard things from her that she told me our whole life, but I didn't hear them until now. And so my respect and love for her are through the roof for what she went through and how she's handled it, as well."
In 2001, the couple ended up going their separate ways. But way back in 1987, right after he and Sandy had tied the knot, Garth met his current wife, Trisha Yearwood, for the very first time. By the sounds of it, Garth and Trisha felt an immediate connection to each other. At the time though, Trisha was also married.
Talking to Ellen DeGeneres, Brooks said, "It's strange because I felt that feeling like when you just meet your wife, but I'd been married for 13 months. Being married, it’s gotta be right. This is who you went to college with, and you were married in front of God and your family and everything."
He then spoke about Trisha saying, "There comes that time where you’re looking at the rest of your life and going, 'How do you want to live it?' Trisha is somebody who I always enjoyed being around, and we had a lot more in common than I ever dreamed we did and we started seeing each other after the divorce after we came off tour." Trisha and Garth got engaged in 2005 and married that same year.
Mahl now works in animal rehabilitation and wildlife rescue at Wild Heart Ranch in Rogers County, Oklahoma. His divorce was one of the most expensive divorces of all time with Brooks paying Mahl a $125 million settlement.
Ever since they split, both have been committed to co-parenting their three daughters. "They saw both their parents in the morning and both their parents in the evening for 14 years," Brooks told the Tennessean. "That was how we ran it because we knew it was right for those kids. If you did what was right for the kids, you were going to do what was right for you. It was simple."
