Photo: Instagram
Blake Shelton officiated at the wedding.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Oct 15, 2019
Country star Trace Adkins and actress Victoria Pratt walked down the aisle this weekend. Friend and wedding officiant Blake Shelton shared a snap of the happy day on his Instagram feed as he offered his congratulations to the happy couple. A rep for the singer confirmed that the pair got married at the Maison Montegut, located in the city’s French Quarter. Adkins' daughters attended the ceremony as well.
Who is Victoria Pratt? Read on for all the details.
1. Canadian university grad
Pratt is from Chelsey in Ontario, Canada. The new Mrs. Adkins has some serious brains: she graduated summa cum laude from York University in Toronto and went on to work at the University in its Human Performance Lab. Her work there included testing major athletes, such as players for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and San Jose Sharks. She was offered a scholarship to study physiotherapy at the University of Toronto but opted not to take it. She's written books in her academic field and has contributed to Muscle Magazine as well. It was the publisher of Muscle Magazine who first convinced her to study acting and she began taking classes at the Actors Network in Toronto.
2. Early TV work
Pratt started acting in the late 1990s and did a lot of work in forgettable TV movies as well as Canadian TV shows like Once a Thief. She was a regular on the show Mutant X. By the mid-2000s, she was doing guest posts on mainstream shows like CSI and Castle. Her life changed in 2013 when she was cast in The Virginian. Trace Adkins played the title role in the western and the two of them met on-set.
Victoria and Trace.
3. Man of many talents
Trace Adkins has built a reputation as a country singer, an actor and a philanthropist after two turns on Celebrity Apprentice raising money for the Red Cross and the Wounded Warrior Project. A Louisiana native, he actually started out working on oil rigs before going into music. Adkins released his first album Dreamin' Out Loud on Capitol Records Nashville in 1996. He was featured on Austin City Limits two years later and since then he has released over 10 more albums, including a Greatest Hits compilation. He has a lengthy acting resume as well, including starring opposite Mathew McConaughey in The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011.
4. Shot by an ex
Adkins has been married three times in the past and one of the marriages was distinctly troubled. In fact, his second wife, Julie, shot him during a domestic dispute in 1994. The bullet went through both lungs and both lower chambers of his heart. In an interview about the incident, he said he tried to get her to drop the gun before she injured him. “Being a macho guy like I am, I tried to scare it out of her hand,” he explained. “I said, ‘Give me the gun, or I’m gonna take it away from you and beat your damn brains out with it.’ I would never have done that, but I told her in hopes that it would scare her.” The gun went off instead and he was transported to a nearby trauma unit that he credits with saving his life. He never pressed charges against his ex.
5. Friendship with Blake Shelton
Adkins and Shelton go way back and they've teamed up to make music numerous times, including the recent single "Hell Yeah." Shelton has nothing but good things to say about Adkins, saying: “He just brings a certain quality to any recording that nobody else can touch. The guy’s got so much personality in his voice and the way he sings, and I still think that he’s one of the most underrated country artists out there.”
But Adkins had a little bit of a sly side when he discussed his country music compatriot. When Shelton was voted People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2017, he dug up a decidedly UN-sexy photo of his friend and posted it to Instagram. He poked a little fun in the caption saying: "So apparently Blake Shelton is the world’s sexiest man? Well, I suppose. Never did pay much attention, but then again this picture was taken before he learned how to be sexy from me. Congrats, BS you heartthrob."
6. Victoria and Trace
The newlyweds have kept the details of their relationship on the private side so it's hard to say when they actually got together. They have known each other since 2013 and they make regular appearances in one another's social media feeds. They hit the red carpet together to promote Adkins' movie Bennet's War over the summer. Now the two have tied the knot. Adkins' daughters from his previous marriages were there for the festivities as well.
This is Pratt's first marriage and Adkins' fourth.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.