When Brantley Gilbert announced his engagement to Amber Cochran last month, he also revealed their heartwarming backstory: He and AMber had been teen sweethearts before drifting apart for years — and then recently reignited their love. What was left unsaid, as Star has discovered exclusively, was that when the country singer and his now-fiancee secretly got engaged on Sept. 21, she was still married — to a man who had claimed during their divorce proceedings that she had committed adultery!
Amber began dating Brock Anderson while they were attending Berry College, and they eventually moved together to a suburb of Savannah, a friend of the duo tells Star. They got married in November 2012, “and they seemed like an ideal, church-going couple,” the friend adds. “I never saw them argue, never saw them upset with each other. They seemed totally in love.”
But after Brantley broke off his engagement with Jana Kramer in 2013, the friend says Amber began spending more time visiting her family in north Georgia. “She had been having some family issues; it’s possible that she turned to Brantley for support and that could have sparked their old feelings again.”
Things even seemed fine between Amber and Brock at a party last January, but the friend claims, “Then she was gone! Brock eventually told us in the spring that she disappeared one night when she said she was going to the grocery store — then never came back and filed for divorce.”
According to court documents obtained by Star, Amber filed for divorce on March 20, claiming she and Brock had separated a month earlier and that he had an “explosive temper” and had been mentally and physically abusive. Brock denied the claims and counterfiled on the grounds of adultery. They eventually agreed on a pretrial settlement, and the divorce was finalized on Oct. 17 — 26 days after she and Bradley reportedly became engaged.
For the full story on Brantley and Amber, pick up the latest issue of Star, on newsstands now!
