Underwood won the fourth season of American Idol. Judge Randy Jackson has said that Underwood is one of his all-time favorite winners of the show, remarking, "she never tried to change herself."
According to a number of sources, Underwood's high profile romance with Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford was ended via text message.
Underwood hails from rural Oklahoma where her parents had a farm. Her father also worked in a sawmill and the family attended the First Free Will Baptist Church, where Underwood first began singing.
Carrie Underwood's fans call themselves "care bears" not only because the title bares resemblance to Underwood's name, but because the singer is a big fan of the Care Bears cartoons.
Some Hearts was Underwood's first full length album. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's country charts and has been recorded as the best selling album of any genre in 2006.
In 2007 Underwood was voted PETA's "World's Sexiest Vegetarian" for the second time. She is a proud animal rights activist who has not eaten meat since the age of 13.
She explained to The Guardian that she doesn't meat as she was raised on a farm and "the worst part of the year for me was when we took some off to sell, because they would cry for each other for a couple of days."
In the winter of 2009 Underwood announced her engagement to Ottawa Senators hockey player Mike Fisher. After a year long engagement, the two were wed in 2010 at the Ritz Carlton in Greensboro, Georgia.
After winning American Idol in 2004, Underwood was still just a junior in college at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. She returned to school despite her new found fame and graduated with a degree in mass communications and journalism.
Underwood likes to have order in certain aspects of her life. She joked to British newspaper the Daily Mail, it's as if she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. "'I'm OCD about time; I'm early for everything, to the point where it freaks people out," she said. "That's my one [thing], it's a good thing I guess, but I know it's annoying to the people around me. I'm on time for everything. If I'm late, something's wrong, like I've wrecked my car."
Carrie revealed to Glamour magazine that her tour bus smells of greasy Mexican food which she eats to keep her energy levels up on stage. She said: "Veggie burgers and quesadillas, mainly - people walk on the tour bus and it stinks.''
Underwood's husband Mike Fisher worries about her safety as she is so bad behind the wheel. "I've never had a wreck," Carrie told UK's Guardian newspaper, "but I kind of bump into things a lot. My husband has had backup cameras installed on my car. I had to get him to replace the bumper because I backed into a telephone pole. I'm that kind of driver."
Carrie Underwood admitted in an in interview with Marie Clare magazine that she's "not a mushy person at all." "We were never a huggy family," she said. "Or a 'let's talk it out' family. Technically I have siblings, but they are quite a bit older than me - I was the accident - so I have the only child syndrome going on. I'm a little more selfish, a little more independent, a little closed."
Underwood added: "I do wish I were softer. I wish I were able to form relationships better. But hey, I mean... I'm not a sociopath!"
Carrie Underwood and Zach Swon of the Swon Brothers were classmates at Northeastern State University. Both took a small country music theater class there on Tuesday nights. Every week a different person had to bring dinner. "Carrie worked at a place called Sam and Ella's Pizza, and it was awesome; it was right there by campus,"Swon recalled to
Taste of Country. "So … every time it was her turn, that's what she would bring into the class."
Carrie Underwood is okay being with every type of God's creatures apart one. "Fun fact: the only animal I do NOT like is a turtle," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I'm fine with snakes and spiders and anything else that most people find scary, but turtles are NOT OK."
She released her debut book, Find Your Path, on March 3, 2020. The fitness and lifestyle tome debuted at the top spot on Amazon's "most sold" nonfiction chart. Along with the book, Underwood simultaneously launched her new Fit52 fitness app.
How does Carrie Underwood unwind from all the stresses of her busy life? "I love being in the gym," she told Audacy. "I love working out, it's good for my brain, good for my body, makes my whole rest of the day go better."
Another hobby that helps the country star relax is gardening. "Being in the garden, you're getting your hands dirty, you're outside in the sunshine, and there's just so many things about gardening that are stress relievers, that make me feel good," she explained.
Carrie Underwood grew up attending rock festivals in her home state of Oklahoma, which introduced her to some extreme music. "I remember going to big rock festivals in Tulsa and kind of being exposed to bands like Slipknot and people like that," she told SiriusXM's Jose Mangin. "So it was just a really great time in music. I feel like the late '90s [and] early 2000s was just a fun time in rock music."
Underwood is a huge fan of Guns N' Roses and lived a dream opening for them on their 2023 North American tour.
In 2024, it was announced that Underwood would become the first former contestant to take a seat as a judge on American Idol, joining Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie on the panel.
