Carrie Underwood is an “American Idol” alum-turned-host, an award-winning country singer, the voice of the “Sunday Night Football” theme song and an Inauguration Day headliner.
But away from the stage and recording studio, there’s another role she takes pride in — wife to Mike Fisher.
A former NHL star, Fisher can often be found by right his wife’s side in Tennessee, where they live with their children, and on the red carpet.
Read on to learn more about the man Underwood calls the love of her life, her perfect match and the “iron to sharpen” her steel on Instagram.
He’s from Canada
Fisher was born on June 5, 1980, in Peterborough, Ontario, to parents Jim and Karen Fisher, who raised him and his three siblings in the city.
As a kid, he discovered his passion for ice hockey and began playing in the Peterborough Minor Hockey Association.
He played in the NHL
Fisher joined the Ottawa Senators in 1999, serving as center. He remained with the Senators until 2011 — with the exception of the 2004-2005 lockout — when he played for Switzerland’s EV Zug. In 2011, he was traded to a U.S. team.
He made his debut with the Nashville Predators that same year, eventually becoming team captain in 2016, one year before he retired — the first time. Fisher returned to the team in 2018, in hopes of helping the Predators get a shot at the Stanley Cup.
When that effort failed, he retired once again in May 2018.
He was set up with his future wife
In 2008, Underwood’s friend and bassist, Mark Childers, who was acquainted with Fisher, suggested the two should meet. Underwood, however, wasn’t so sure about the idea.
“I mean, can I make dating more difficult? Let’s get a hockey guy who lives in another country. Awesome,” she recalled thinking in an interview for “MTV’s Behind the Music” podcast.
Reluctantly, she agreed to an introduction, deciding, “We’re sticking him in a meet-and-greet, because if he’s weird, I don’t want to deal with him.”
The “Before He Cheats” singer didn’t find Fisher weird at all, though. Instead, she texted Childers to say she thought he was “hot, hot, hot.”
The pair swapped numbers, but it would be months before they went on their first official date. On New Year’s Eve, they shared their first kiss at the stroke of midnight.
By December 2009, they were engaged, and on July 10, 2010, Fisher and Underwood wed.
He and Carrie Underwood have 2 kids
Before becoming a father, Fisher knew he wanted to be a good one.
“(Having kids) is something we’re really looking forward to,” he told The Tennessean in 2015. “I’m just thinking about wanting to be the best dad I can be.”
On Feb. 27, 2015, he and Underwood welcomed their first child, a son named Isaiah Michael Fisher. They added another baby boy to the family, Jacob Bryan Fisher, on Jan. 21, 2019.
In a Father’s Day message Underwood shared on social media months after Jacob’s arrival, she posted a photo of Fisher and their sons at home, saying the image “sums up fatherhood.”
She added, “To all the frog catching, bedtime story reading, wrestling, diaper changing, outside playing, adventure seeking, tickling, cuddling, loving dads out there, Happy Father’s Day! @mfisher1212 your boys sure do love you and are are so lucky to have you! ❤️”
He’s Canadian American
Hailing from Canada, Fisher became an American citizen on March 21, 2019. At the time, the 44-year-old announced his new status in his Instagram Stories.
“Big day,” he wrote over a photo that showed him holding a tiny American flag in a courtroom, Taste of Country reported. “I’m officially American.”
He loves horses
Two days before Fisher’s naturalization ceremony, he celebrated another milestone on Instagram: getting his first horse.
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted horses,” he wrote alongside a picture of him next to a black-and-white stallion. “Today I got my first! Bojangles is finally home! He’ll have a dancing partner in a couple days.”
In a post of her own, Underwood noted, “Every cowboy needs a horse…and a hat. I’m still working with him on the Southern accent.”
He’s a man of faith
There are a few things Fisher and Underwood don’t see eye to eye on. His love of hunting is one.
“I always swore I would never marry a hunter as a child, not in a million years,” she said during an episode of “Mike and Carrie: God & Country,” their four-part series for I Am Second. “We just differ drastically.”
But when it comes to faith, the two are on the same page.
“I think (our faith) gives us a kind of center ground where that’s the most important thing in anything,” Fisher noted. “And then your differences, if they’re rooted in that — I know your heart and you know my heart — there’s always a way, and it usually … it alwaysis God working in it.”
He’s a really big Carrie Underwood fan
When his wife was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2018, Fisher made sure the world knew just how much he appreciates her talents, too.