In Garth Brooks’ A&E Documentary “The Road I’m On,” Sandy Mahl explained how fame was a major factor in the breakdown of their relationship. She detailed what it was like to have strangers constantly wanting the attention of her husband, even so much as “yanking and pulling” on him (via Rolling Stone). “He’d be gone for eight to 10 weeks at a time,” she continued. “He’d come home, [and] there would be number-one parties, or shows, of CMAs, or ACMs, American Music Awards, so it was constantly going.”
For a couple that had been together since college, the quick rise to fame on Brooks’ side led to the couple growing apart “really, really quickly.” Looking back on it now, Mahl believes they didn’t appreciate how much Brooks’ rise to fame would change their lives.
However, Mahl’s comments came as a surprise to the country singer. “It’s rare you get to hear the other side,” Brooks said at a press junket for the documentary (via Country Living), explaining that he was “gone on the road so much” during their marriage that he missed things that Mahl was trying to tell him. “I just saw her, and I think I hugged her harder than I ever have now that I know things that either I didn’t hear or that she didn’t say until now.”