Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks have been known as the golden couple of country music for the fifteen years that they have been married. That’s why it came as a shock this week when Yearwood admitted that being married to Brooks “can be difficult” at times.

“We’re both very independent people who run our own ships. And sometimes when two people are driving two big ships, it can be difficult,” Yearwood told US Weekly.

Yearwood went on to explain that it is all about “balance” for the couple after spending so much time together during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is something that couples everywhere can undoubtedly relate to.

“Before this past year, we were together all the time. I mean, we really are a couple who got married to be together, so we don’t spend that much time apart anyway,” she explained. “So it wasn’t a huge change, but it was enough that there was really nowhere to go.”

“I think it was kind of navigating; how do we stay alphas, stay independent, do our own thing, feel like we run our own lives, but be a couple,” Yearwood continued. “It’s a balance where sometimes one person is running the ship and sometimes the other person is, and sometimes you’re going to butt heads.”

This comes a month after Brooks talked about the ways that COVID-19 has made their relationship stronger.

“I think 99.9 percent of the people wouldn’t have done what I do, but I thought since we’re here and we ain’t got nowhere to go, let’s just attack some of the hardest things over the 15 years that bugs one of us,” Brooks said. “It was like living in a little house [where] you couldn’t go anywhere, so you couldn’t walk away from the conversation.”

Yearwood added this week that their relationship is “better now than ever” right now, and it’s better than any of her previous relationships.

“I was always the person in relationships when things got difficult; I was really happy to just bail. I was good at that,” she revealed. “So in this situation, that’s not an option because this is the love of my life, you know? So you sit down, and you talk it through and, and that gets you better when you get to the other side.”