Luke Combs may call himself an “underachieving, average Joe,” but the country singer sure landed himself a winner. In January 2022, he announced his wife, Nicole Hocking, is pregnant with their first child together.
“Here we go y’all! Lil dude Combs is coming this Spring!” the “Better Together” singer wrote via Instagram on January 20. “Couldn’t be more excited to start a family with this babe. It’s gonna be a hell of a ride @nicolejcombs.”
Nicole, whom Luke married in 2020, has always had the musician’s back. In October 2019, the recruiting coordinator made headlines when she defended Luke from body-shaming.
“[To] everyone currently being less than pleasant to me on [Twitter] for dating a bigger guy,” she wrote at the time, including a meme featuring a Facebook marketplace listing of two fists. “These hands [are] free,” suggesting she was ready to fistfight.
“Also grow up. It’s 2019. The double standard for this is absolutely disgusting,” Nicole wrote in a separate tweet.
But her no-holds-barred attitude isn’t the only thing that’s great about her.
Keep scrolling to get to know more about Nicole and her relationship with the award-winning musician.
What Does Nicole Hocking Do?
After growing up in Florida and studying civil engineering in college, she landed a couple of music internships. She specifically focused on country music, which led to her move to Nashville, Tennessee. There, she landed a job at Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) as a recruiting and onboarding coordinator. Nicole was working there when she met her now-husband while he was just an up-and-coming singer.
How Did Luke Combs and Nicole Hocking Meet?
“We met through mutual friends,” Nicole explained on the “Get Real with Caroline Hobby“ podcast in May 2019, before dishing about how she first fell in love with Luke.
While they were at a music festival in Florida, they spotted each other, and Nicole invited Luke to hang out with her and her friends. When they got back to Nashville, where they both lived, he invited her over for dinner and, as she explained, “That was all she wrote.”
“[I knew] pretty close to right away,” she said. “I saw the way he treated me and other people, and it was like, ‘My heart is yours forever.'”
According to Luke, it didn’t hurt that he wrote her a song — his hit “Beautiful Crazy” — before they even defined their relationship. The pair started to officially date in 2016.
“That got me some serious brownie points,” the musician told ABC News in August 2018. “That was before we were officially dating.”
When Did They Get Engaged?
The North Carolina native popped the question in the kitchen of their home in November 2018 after two years of dating. Not long after, they broke the news while on vacation in Hawaii.
“You’re stuck with me forever!! I love you so, sooo much babe,” Nicole captioned an Instagram photo in December 2018 as they celebrated their engagement.
“Now that I’ve had time to let it sink in a little, I always said if I was to ever get married, I didn’t want to pick out the ring or go ring shopping. I wanted it to be something that when he saw it, he knew that it was the one … [and] boyyy did he outdo himself,” she continued in a second post, showing off her ring. “I never thought a ring could mean so much to me. I love you, Luke Albert Combs. I’m going to marry the hell outta you.”
“She said yes a while ago, but this is a way better place to take pictures than the kitchen,” Luke wrote in his own post. “Can’t wait to spend forever with you, [Nicole]. I love you! #Mahalo.”
When Did Luke Combs and Nicole Hocking Get Married?
On August 1, 2020, the couple tied the knot in an intimate wedding ceremony in Florida amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Yesterday was the best day of my life. I got to marry my best friend. I love you [Nicole], here’s to forever,” the “When It Rains, It Pours” singer wrote in his announcement via Instagram.
“Yesterday was the most special day!! I’m so happy to spend the rest of my life with you!” Nicole shared on her own account. “Although we wish would could have had every single one of our family & friends there, we can’t wait to celebrate with everyone next year!”