Ryan Hurd thought he was having a banner year watching his breakout single, "To a T," head up the charts — but “that all kinda got washed away” with even bigger news.
It arrived just about three months ago when his wife, Maren Morris, took a home pregnancy test and discovered the couple were expecting a baby.
Hurd revealed to PEOPLE on the 2019 CMAs red carpet Wednesday that Morris called him while he was working with his clothing stylist, so he couldn’t go bonkers in the moment when she shared her results. To a degree, he also kept having to hold in his excitement until the couple made their public announcement on Oct. 22 via their socials.
“We had a few months where it was just ours, and then our friends and our families and our teams,” says the singer-songwriter, 33, who walked the red carpet solo after the couple posed for photographers. “Then it’s been nice to be public and be able to share the news. It seems to be the questions that people want to know about, but it’s fine, because we really are thrilled about it.”
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For her public post, Morris took the coy route: “The irony is just too rich that after a year of living in the ‘GIRL’ headspace, the universe would give us a baby boy to even things out. See you in 2020, little one.”
For his public post, Hurd channeled Seinfeld, quoting a classic George Constanza line — “My boys can swim!” — that, he says, “I’ve been saving since I was 13 years old.”
Still, after waiting 20 years to use it, the self-described “Seinfeld nerd” confesses he came close to chickening out, worried that it might be “crass.”
“Maren was the one who was, like, ‘That’s funny — you have to do it,’ ” he says. “I can’t believe George Constanza is part of the biggest announcement of my entire life, but maybe someday I’ll meet Jason Alexander [who played the character], and we’ll get to talk about it.”
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Hurd says the couple decided to reveal both the pregnancy and the sex at the same time “just to get it all out there at once.” They chose not to wait until the birth to find out the sex, he adds, because “Maren’s not good at secrets. She wanted to know.”
Morris, 29, originally thought she was having a girl, but neither had a preference, he says, and “We’re very excited just to know what it is.”
The timing for the pregnancy couldn’t be better, Hurd says, now that Morris is wrapping up her successful GIRL tour — topped off with her CMA win Wednesday for album of the year — and he will be finished with his spring tour by the time the March due date rolls around.
But even more important than their schedules, this is a moment when “we’re both really settled personally, and that makes our relationship even stronger,” he tells PEOPLE.
Check out PEOPLE’s full CMA Awards coverage to get the latest news on country music’s biggest night.
Blue for a Boy! Pregnant Maren Morris Walks the 2019 CMA Awards Red Carpet in a Two-Piece Gown
So what’s he looking forward to about fatherhood? Charmingly, he expresses absolute cluelessness: “I have no idea.”
But he’s eager to learn, and he’s been talking to friends “who are great fathers. They’re sharing stuff from their experience, and I’m trying to wrap my head around that.”
Morris, meanwhile, has been downloading pregnancy and parenting apps onto her phone. “She’s able to fully concentrate on becoming a mom for the first time,” he says, “so she’s going to be great.”
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He also expects to get help and advice from both of their families, including his brother and wife, whose first baby is due any day now. “My parents live in Nashville,” he says, “and they have their nursery already set up before we do.”
Hurd reveals he has begun introducing his son to music in utero, starting the kid out right with the classics: the Beatles. The first recording he played Morris’ baby bump? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
But Hurd says he and Morris would rather their child not follow them into the “crazy world” of professional music. “We’re hoping for a math major,” he jokes.
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