Brandi Carlile’s Grammys 2022 performance proved the singer-songwriter is one of the best. As for her personal life, she has quite an interesting living situation with her wife, Catherine Shepherd, and kids. Here’s where Brandi Carlile lives and why those close to her worried she was “forming a cult.”
Where does Brandi Carlile live? She created a compound with her wife, Catherine Shepherd
Some fans expect Brandi Carlile to live in a celebrity-style mansion, but that is not the case. The singer-songwriter reportedly lives on a compound she began to develop when she was 21 years old.
“I live in the same log cabin that I bought when I was 21,” she told The Cut. “As I get older, my family grows, and things change about my life.” She noted she and her wife, Catherine Shepherd, added a deck, a nursery, and a chicken coop to their cabin. Additionally, Carlile’s father is a carpenter, and she learned a lot from him. “Over the years I’ve been buying tools and learning how to do some basic carpentry myself,” she added. “I really, really enjoy it. I can never quit — I’ve got three projects going right now.”
Rolling Stone notes the cabin is in Maple Valley, Washington — about 45 minutes away from Seattle. It’s not just Carlile and Shepherd who live on the property. Carlile’s bandmate, Phil, married Carlile’s sister, Tiffany. Another bandmate, Josh, married Shepherd’s sister. The band’s engineer, Gerry, married another Shepherd sister. They bought acres of land to live on Carlile’s property.
“Everybody teased, ‘Brandi’s forming a cult,'” Carlile told Parents. “Next thing I knew, the people I work with were here. And we’ve married into each other’s families.”
Brandi Carlile and wife Catherine Shepherd raise their 2 children on the compound
Brandi Carlile and her wife, Catherine Shepherd, have two children — Evangeline and Elijah. Evangeline turns 8 in 2022, and Elijah turns 3 in 2022. But those aren’t the only children where Brandi Carlile lives.
“There are a whole bunch of siblings and seven kids,” Carlile told The Cut. “My ex, Kim, moved back here after all this time with her girlfriend, Nicole. Kim is important to me, and she’s a pain in my a**. Many hands make light work. We’re able to support each other emotionally and in so many other ways.”
It seems all the families and friends help each other out, too. “You get so tired of your own cooking — so, say it’s Josh and Sarah’s night to cook. We can go to each other’s houses,” Carlile told Parents. “We have a garden that we all can work in. We built a deck and put in an above-ground pool. We’ve done all kinds of projects together —anything to keep ourselves busy.” When it comes to the kids, Carlile added that “everyone helps the kids with learning. It’s a community-based effort.”
The couple calls ‘gay domesticity’ a ‘radically new concept’
When Brandi Carlile and her wife, Catherine Shepherd, had their children, they likely didn’t expect to live on a compound with their closest friends. And it seems they didn’t have much of a blueprint on how they should parent, either.
“There’s some serious pioneering involved here,” Carlile told Today. “I wish there had been more for me to read or to absentmindedly absorb through TV sitcoms, movies, and ads — things that could have prepared me for the strangeness of being wholly responsible for a child without much representation or mirror to show me what it would look like.”
To Parents, Carlile called “gay domesticity” a “radically new concept.”
“To my immense relief and delight, Catherine and I found a total abundance of support from our friends and family around us who had kids,” the songwriter added. “It felt like joining some kind of a club. It actually made me feel cooler.”
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