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Robby Klein.
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Robby Klein.
Each year we celebrate the incredible people that make Nashville a beautiful place to live.This year, we toast a lineup that includes creatives, business people, culinarians, and everything in between. With a passion for philanthropy and a beautiful outlook on life, these are the men and women who make Music City shine.
It takes a special woman to get Bobby Bones to unplug.
The syndicated radio host, American Idol mentor, New York Times best-selling author, Breaking Bobby Bones star, et al. has long been open about his work addiction— and for good reason. The Arkansas native was the first in his family to graduate high school and college; he started his radio career at 17; and in 2012 he launched what would become the largest morning show in country radio.
But in 2019 he met Caitlin (then Parker) through a mutual friend in Los Angeles while paying a visit to the set of Dancing with the Stars (after winning the show in 2018) and his priorities began to change. Initially, the two exchanged hellos and went their separate ways. They kept in touch via Instagram direct message and on his next trip to L.A., Bones asked Caitlin on a date. Or so he thought.
“He was staying at some weird hotel where there was a club on the bottom floor,” she laughs. “He was like, ‘Do you want to go down and check out this club?’ We danced probably four songs...” “Because I thought it was a date!” Bones interjects. “...and then we left to get a salad. It was almost like Chipotle but you go through the line and get your salad,” she says. “I remember I paid for us both. I had no idea it was a date! I think I figured out halfway through dinner that it was.”
Humble (and confusing) beginnings aside, the couple began to date long distance, and when COVID hit in early 2020, Caitlin came to Nashville to spend some quality lockdown time with her new beau. Eventually she made the move from Los Angeles to Music City and Bones proposed in October of the same year. The two were wed at their home surrounded by some very famous friends in July.
For Bones, the day meant a new beginning in more ways than one. Growing up with virtually no family (his father was absent; his mother an addict who was rarely present), the union symbolized the start of his own family unit. “When she put the ring on my finger for the first time, it felt cemented,” he says.
For Caitlin, who is extremely close to her family, it meant a new soft place to land.
“The most special thing to me was my dad handing me off to Bobby,” she says. “Out of all of the places in the world, my family is where I feel the most safe, regardless of which member I’m with: my brother, my sister, and my parents. There aren’t a lot of places like that in this world that felt safe until I met Bobby... It felt like going from one safety net to an even better safety net, because now it’s my husband.”
Now settled back at home after a romantic Grecian honeymoon, the two are deepening their relationship—and learning how to be a happily married couple.
“Quality time to her is me putting my phone away and being extremely present, which I am not good at,” he says. “I’ve gotten significantly better at it, but I’m still probably just a C student. I was an F student before her. Her quality time is making sure that consciously we are each other’s number one priority in that moment. It doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing. That’s quality time to her. Quality time to me is if she’s around me at any time, no matter what’s going on. As long as she’s with me, we’re good. She does that for me and I am trying to do that for her. So, we meet each other’s needs. Even though they’re different roads, we’re going to the same place.”
“There’s a big difference between being roommates and spending quality time together,” she adds. “I think that that’s been one of our challenges: just to meet each other in the middle for that.” “She doesn’t love that 16-to-17-hour workday that I normally had,” Bones says. “But I also have learned that I do benefit from not just staring at a computer screen or a phone or a microphone. That’s all that I’ve ever done, but I’ve also learned to see what’s good about not doing that as well.”
“I have a joke in our house which I don’t think he loves, but it’s like, ‘I didn’t marry Bobby Bones. I married Bobby Estell,’” Caitlin says, using Bones’ legal name. “I don’t want to spend the night with Bobby Bones tonight. I want to be with you. I don’t want to talk about the show tomorrow, or I don’t want to talk about work stuff. I just want us to be a normal husband and wife that live together in Nashville. [At home] it’s not a career-centric world, it’s a newlywed- centric world where we’re trying to put our roots down.”
The two are cementing those roots by doing normal couple things: hitting their favorite dinner spots (True Food Kitchen and The Optimist are at the top of their list), hanging out with their two pups Stanley and Eller, and engaging in a little friendly competition. “We play a lot of sports with or against each other and she’s just as competitive as I am. She’s such a good athlete—it’s so annoying to me that she’s just so good and I’m not,” Bones laughs. Bones doesn’t hold back when it comes to complimenting his wife—even when it comes with a side of self-deprecating humor. But he turns serious when talking about the sacrifices she’s made for the sake of their relationship.
“She moved to California, paid for her own degree, and worked [while she was in school] and then moved to Nashville. And instead of continuing that path, at least the last few months, she traveled with me or we would have never seen each other,” he says. “When we were shooting Breaking Bobby Bones, she was constantly on the road. She watched YouTube videos and learned to do my hair on set just so we can be together. She’s really sacrificed a whole lot to be here. I’m very grateful for that.”
For Caitlin, the sacrifices have all been worth it. “I just have such a sense of peace with him,” she says. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s the one for me. I attribute that to God saying, ‘This is your person.’ We grew up three hours apart— didn’t know each other, but so close that we have so many of the same core values. But then we’ve also both moved off and gathered other life experiences. I just feel like we’re rooted in a lot of the same things.”
“She’s obviously beautiful,” Bones says of his wife, “but the thing I’m most grateful for is that I’ve never had a family. Ever. There was never that sense of the foundation of a family. And to see that that’s so important to her and to see that that’s how she lives her life, and that is still the number one thing to her—with them and now with me... As much as we could list out the characteristics that have drawn me to her, I think what continues to pull me into her as a constant is just her family values. It’s a foreign language to me. It’s like I moved to a new country and I have no choice but to learn, and I can’t wait to learn more because I know that’s how I’m going to survive. I feel like I have that family that I’ve never had.”
Special thanks to Grogan Jewelers by Lon for bringing some extra sparkle to our shoot!
Cailtin Estell is wearing: 14k White Gold diamond hoops: 4 carat total weight; Sethi Couture 18k black rhodium and diamond honey comb band.