Tim McGraw’s emotional confession about his mom and three daughters revealed

Tim McGraw owes everything to his mother, Betty, who raised him and his two sisters as a single mother living paycheck to paycheck.

The country legend opened up about how he wants his daughters to learn from Betty’s incredible “tenacity” in a new interview with his record label, Big Machine, detailing how much his mother shaped him. 

Tim’s hero

“I think more than anything [what I admire most] is her tenacity,” Tim shared. “You know, my mom worked three jobs with us growing up, and was in some abusive relationships, and she really worked hard and really instilled a sense of belief in ourself and to dream and to always go for stuff.”

“And I feel like hopefully Faith and I both have done that for our daughters,” he continued. “But that’s the trait of my mom, besides her big heart, that’s the trait in my mom that I admire most, her tenacity and her willingness to overcome adversity.”

Tim’s father, pro baseball player Tug McGraw, was not part of his life until adulthood; instead, he grew up believing that his stepfather, Horace Smith, was his real dad. 

That all changed on his 11th birthday when the “Don’t Take the Girl” singer found his birth certificate. He developed a relationship with Tug after he turned 18, and the pair were close until his father passed away from lung cancer in 2004. 

Scraping by

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In a previous interview with ABC News, Tim got candid about how Betty sacrificed so much for him and his sisters and struggled with money throughout his childhood. 

“She didn’t get to graduate because I came along,” he told the outlet. 

“And then she went through some terrible things early in my life. So I have a lot of memories of all those things, and I know how resilient my mom is, and how tough she is, and how strong of a woman she is, and how well she raised us under the circumstances.”

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“I can remember us being on our own – my mom and my two sisters – and her working three jobs, probably, just to try to keep the basics. She made no money, really,” he recalled. 

“I can remember walking through the kitchen one night, getting up late, and…she had her head down on the table at like two in the morning with bills everywhere and was crying, and she didn’t see me. But for her, that was probably a hundred different nights that I didn’t know about.”

A new generation

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Tim’s three daughters were certainly born with their grandmother’s spirit, and are all hardworking women paving their own paths. He shares Gracie, 28, Maggie, 26, and Audrey, 23, with his wife and fellow country superstar Faith Hill. 

“It’s inspiring to me to watch them go out on their own and do the things they do,” the proud father told People. 

“We’ve raised three strong, independent, strong-minded young women. And what I’m most grateful for is just how normal our kids are and how grounded they are and how much they respect themselves and other people. It makes me feel like we’ve done a pretty decent job, especially Mom.”

To watch Tim and Faith’s three daughters showcase their incredible talents, see below…