All About Ree Drummond's Husband, Ladd

If you're short on time, don't ask Ree Drummond, host of Food Network's The Pioneer Woman, to list everything she loves about her cowboy husband, Ladd. It'll take less time — if any — to ask what she doesn't love. The couple met one night in a bar in her small Oklahoma hometown, she told People, but four months passed before the handsome stranger got back in touch. She was planning a move to Chicago when he called and asked her out. That first date ended in their first kiss, and soon after, he said he loved her. They wed in 1996.

In his jeans and boots, Ladd reminded Ree of a character from an old cigarette ad featuring a cowboy, so she started calling him "The Marlboro Man." Today, Ladd and his brother, Tim, co-own the Drummond Land & Cattle Company in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where he and Ree make their home and share a happily-ever-after ranch romance.

Ree and Ladd share four biological children, Alex, Paige, Bryce, and Todd and an adopted son, Jamar (not shown). Pictured here in an early episode of her show, they're all adults now. Ladd has always been a hands-on dad, Ree says, and it's one of the things she loves most about him. He's always supported their children's athletic interests, she recalls, from rolling up his sleeves and coaching their football practices to cheering them on from the stands.

Ladd graduated from Arizona State University and still considers himself an ASU Sun Devil. He showed his passion for the pigskin even on their wedding day, Ree says, when he and some friends spent almost their entire wedding reception watching a football game.

"Ladd really is a great dancer," Ree says admiringly. "He's definitely got smooth moves on the dance floor." While she says they don't go out often, he remembers how he "cut a mean rug" at one of their Cowboy Christmas parties and again when they hit the floor at their son Alex's graduation party. People reports they've been known to take to the stage and dance at events like the family's annual Fourth of July celebration in Pawhuska. "Yep, real cowboys can dance and squeeze their partners," Ree says. "If he heard me say how good he was, he'd deny it. But trust me, the guy can dance."

Ree admits it's hard for some people to understand why a married couple would prank each other with fake snakes and other tricks, but they've been doing it for decades, she says, and now she can't recall who started it. They've gone back and forth, hiding rubber reptiles under the bedcovers, in the grass, the truck and in other places to get a jump scare out of the other person and share a good laugh. He's pranked her with other things, too, like firecrackers, and "there was the time he threw me over his shoulder. He's a big, strong man, I tell you." Ree gives as good as she gets, though. Pranks are "how we show we love each other," and they've been pulling them since they got married. "It's our tagline."

"I love a man on a horse," Ree says, "especially if it's my husband." She's smitten with her cowboy and the ranch life they share. She can't stop watching him ride, she admits, whether she sees him backlit by the rising sun, herding cattle, galloping across the prairie ("sometimes riding like the wind") or just taking it easy, riding along and singing. Watching him on horseback makes her heart leap, she says.

Ree knows Ladd and the other cowboys like her Rustic Meatball Subs when they've got a lot of work to do on the ranch. She can wrap up the subs and hand them out as a meal to-go, or they can be eaten on the spot for a quick lunch. Her homemade meatballs are made with lean ground beef and spicy breakfast sausage and simmered in marinara sauce with seasonings. She tops the subs with mozzarella cheese slices just before serving them, so the cheese can melt.

Sometimes, when their kids are away from the ranch or busy with chores like stacking hay, Ladd comes into the kitchen and "shows up to cook with me for a while," Ree says. She likes to make Mexican chocolate sundaes based on a Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe Ladd's mother gave her years ago, when they got engaged. "I can't tell you how many times I've made it for him, but it always makes him happy." She adds some cinnamon to the Mexican chocolate and turns it into a hot fudge sauce to pour over vanilla ice cream, and sometimes they share the same bowl. "We're demonstrating that the couple that cooks together eats together," she says.

Ree loves Ladd's eyes, which she describes as icy blue or ice blue-green. Her mother tells Ree that she once commented that she didn't know that eye color even existed. His eyes can look mysterious, Ree adds, and "sometimes a little inscrutable, sometimes happy and inquisitive." But she's told her viewers that his laugh is what she loves the most. "When he laughs, his eyes twinkle, and his chuckle is so cute."

There's an old saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach; it might be the way to everybody's heart, but Ree knows which foods Ladd likes best. She thinks it's slightly funny that her cattle rancher husband is a big fan of BBQ chicken; he likes it oven-roasted and served with her tasty sauce. Still, the Drummonds are really a meat-and-potatoes family, she says, and her recipe for Ladd's Prime Rib is his favorite meal. He also loves her pasta, like the Penne alla Vodka shown here. According to Foodie, Ladd is a huge fan of Dr. Pepper and has been known to drink four cans a day.

Ladd's father, Chuck, taught Ladd and the rest of the family about ranching and modeled a strong work ethic, Ree recalled on her blog after Chuck passed away in 2022. The family affectionately called him "Pa-Pa," and she remembers his unfailing kindness and support over the years; he came to the opening of The Mercantile, Ree's combination restaurant, shop and bakery, to help greet visitors. Ladd misses hearing his dad talk about how things were in the old days, Ree has said, and he always liked to hear Chuck's take on anything related to agriculture.

Roping is a complicated skill that's hard to learn, Ree says, but Ladd is good at it, whether he's practicing on a makeshift sawhorse like this one or catching a live steer. A fourth-generation rancher who's lived in Pawhuska for most of his life, Ladd has passed down what he knows to his sons and daughters. All the kids have worked or continue to help and work on the ranch in various ways, from handling marketing and photo shoots to rounding up cattle and handling daily chores.

When the Drummonds' second-oldest daughter, Paige, got married in 2025, she traded the hat and boots she wore around the ranch for an elegant wedding gown. For her first dance with her father, she chose a Garth Brooks song, "That Girl Is a Cowboy," about a strong, resilient cowboy who isn't a boy at all. His two daughters made it easy for Ladd to "fall in love with fatherhood," Ree once wrote, and the boys, when they came along, "were just the icing on the cake."

Once, when Ree and Ladd found themselves home alone around their birthdays (both were born in January), she made a special dinner for them to share. She whipped up meatballs and spaghetti, garlic bread pinwheels and what she calls Ladd's Chopped Wedge Salad. She also baked a Black Forest Cake for Two, topped with a syrupy cherry liquor mixture, whipped cream, cooked and pitted cherries, and some grated chocolate. When everything was ready, Ladd announced he wanted to go with the way his dad liked to have dinner, which meant eating dessert first. "We can do what we want," he told Ree. "We're by ourselves." She agreed, lighting the candles on the cake and smiling while he made a wish and blew them out. "This is why I married him."