Country singer Chely Wright welcomes identical twins with wife

By Nardine Saad

May 20, 2013 12 AM PT

Country singer Chely Wright and her wife Lauren Blitzer Wright have two new additions to their family: The couple welcomed identical twins on Saturday.

The singer, 42, gave birth to their baby boys in New York City, her rep told People.

The Wrights named the boys George Samuel and Everett Joseph after their great-grandfathers. The duo was due this summer but were born a little early and are said to be “thriving,” the mag said.

“We are grateful for all the amazing medical care and the love and support of family and friends,” Wright said.

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She and Blitzer, 31, a music exec, married in Connecticut in August 2011, announced the pregnancy in January 2013, and revealed the sex of their twins last March.

In April, the singer had to cancel a show because she believed she was in pre-term labor and was ordered by doctors to rest at home and stop traveling.

Wright burst on the country music scene in 1994, was named top new female vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 1995 and made it big with hits including “Shut Up and Drive” and “Single White Female.” In 2010, she was the first commercial country music singer to come out as gay and later allowed herself to be the subject of a 2011 documentary of her life called “Wish Me Away,” in which she said she didn’t get much support when she announced her sexual orientation.

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“Country music would rather an artist be a drunk -- they even encourage and endorse that one,” Wright told The Times. “You get good money from Jim Beam to put that emblem on the side of your bus. I was on the Crown Royal tour, and I have to say it was one of my favorite tours. They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay.”

“On a human level,” she added later. “I wonder why they can’t see the value that I told my biggest secret — particularly when you think it might get you excommunicated from your house of worship, your social circles and your industry.”

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