Charles Esten on His Wife, Marriage: ‘I Got Real Lucky’

Charles Esten is known to millions of fans as Deacon Claybourne, the husband of Rayna James (Connie Britton) on the hit TV show Nashville. But in real life, the actor and singer has been married to his wife, Patty, for 25 years, and their marriage is stronger than ever before.

"We were in Los Angeles for the bulk of that, so that’s almost like 50 years in Los Angeles years," Esten tells The Boot of his and his wife's quarter-century together. "But we’ve come to a town that’s been great for our family, for she and I, and it’s just great to share all this with somebody who was there literally from the ground floor."

With 25 years of wedded bliss behind them, along with being parents to three children, Esten might seem like the perfect candidate to offer advice on achieving a happy marriage, but he says that he mostly considers himself lucky.

"Unfortunately, it’s all in the choosing, I think," Esten shares. "I hate to say that, because some people are already in, but I got real lucky. I look back on the fool that I was at that age, and that that moron had enough sense to be smart enough to hang on to that woman still blows my mind.

"I didn’t make many right decisions back then," he adds. "She might be the only one."

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Esten's wife, who relocated to Music City with him when Nashville began filming, inspired one of the songs that he featured as an Every Single Friday download. The song is called "I'll Never Know Why."

"And it’s literally that: I’ll never know why I’m that guy that gets to be with her," Esten explains. "I wrote it with Kyle Jacobs, who of course is Kellie Pickler’s [husband], so he doesn’t know why either."

Esten is back in his Nashville role for Season 5, which is airing on CMT; the show airs on Thursday nights at 9PM ET. "I'll Never Know Why" is available for download on iTunes.

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