Walker Hayes' 7 Kids: Everything to Know

Walker Hayes may love a Bourbon Street steak with an Oreo shake, but his love knows no bounds for his wife Laney and their seven children: Lela, Chapel, Baylor, Beckett, Loxley, Everly and Oakleigh.

A year after tying the knot, the high school sweethearts welcomed their first child together in 2005. Then along came Lela's brothers: Chapel, Baylor and Beckett. Speaking with PEOPLE, Walker admitted he and Laney had always planned on having four children, "but we just kept going." In 2013, they welcomed baby number five, Loxley, who got promoted to big sister in 2015 with the addition of Everly.

In 2018, the pair's seventh child, Oakleigh, died at birth as a result of a uterine rupture. The "Don't Let Her" singer shared that his family grieved and honored Oakleigh in their own way. While the country music star is known for his autobiographical songwriting, his song for Oakleigh will "come one day, but only when it's supposed to."

"I will definitely sit down when the right stuff falls out that I think comes even close to doing my daughter justice, and it's beautiful enough to share with the world about her and about this experience," he told PEOPLE.

The Hayes family's darkest moment was followed by the family's biggest blessing: Walker and Lela's viral "Fancy Like" TikTok dance. Overnight, the father-daughter duo became the face of the TikTok dance challenge, catapulting Walker's career to newfound stardom. The Hayes clan went from making funny social media posts to starring in Applebee's commercials.

Shortly after, Walker found out he would be headlining his own tour — with Laney and their six kids in tow. Walker was fully aware of the public perception of his family of eight living on a tour bus, but to him, it was a dream come true. "We're a unit," he said to PEOPLE. "We lean on each other. We're gonna be together as much as we can."

Here’s everything to know about Walker Hayes’ seven children.

Lela Hayes, 18

Walker's oldest child, daughter Lela, was born on Dec. 22, 2005.

Following her and Walker's viral "Fancy Like" TikTok dance in 2021, she naturally assumed the role of her dad's dance choreographer and social media manager.

"We just threw it together. It was my job to keep it easy enough for the old folks. And it didn't take us long. I mean, we probably put it together in 30 minutes. We did two takes and just threw it up," Walker told PEOPLE of how the viral TikTok dance challenge came to be. The father-daughter duo have also choreographed dances to Walker's "Y'all Life," "Country Stuff" and "U Gurl," as well as Ed Sheeran's "Shivers" and FloRida's "High Heels."

While Lela isn't on social media herself, her parents often document her big moments — including getting asked out to prom — on Walker's Instagram. "My socials are not label-run and they're rarely curated," Walker told PEOPLE.

At 16 years old, Lela joined her father and family on tour. While Walker admitted to PEOPLE that he was worried about how Lela would react to being away from her friends and the high school experiences she was inevitably missing out on, the teenager was happy to be with her family.

"Lela's like, 'I can't believe this is our life, I can't believe we get to do this,' " he said. "And I agree. I'm like, I can't believe it, either."

During a guest appearance on the Bobby Bones Show in 2019, Laney praised Lela for being a second mom to her younger siblings. "She's more capable of running the household than I am," she said.

Chapel Hayes, 16

Walker and Laney welcomed their second child, son Chapel, on Aug. 17, 2007. While Chapel doesn't often appear of his father's social media, he does, however, have a song named after him on Walker's 2018 album, 8 Tracks, Vol: 3 Black Sheep.

Titled "Chapel," Walker opens up about raising a son whose "dreams might be different" than the goals he dreamt for him as a baby. He sings, "Maybe you won't be an athlete/You might not like sports/ And wanna be a mathlete/ And if that's the case/ I ain't gon' treat you like no black sheep/ I don't care if you never win a track meet."

Of the Hayes bunch, Chapel is one of the "shy ones," Walker previously told PEOPLE. The country artist said he was happily surprised when Chapel, alongside younger brother Beckett, joined the family onstage for a dance performance on his "Fancy Like" tour.

"Laney and I get teary-eyed talking about it," Walker said. "I mean, both of them went onstage and did the dance, which is uncharacteristic of them. It was a cool moment to see your shy ones just having fun in front of all these people and cutting loose."

"I love each and every one of these kids," he told PEOPLE in 2017. "They're all so beautiful and incredible, and watching them grow is the best thing I get to do on earth."

In August 2023, Walker marked Chapel's 16th birthday by posting a video on his Instagram Story. In the clip, the Hayes family chanted "Chapel's sixteen" around the teenager.

Baylor Hayes, 14

Like his big sister, Baylor has enjoyed having a hands-on role in his dad's music career. He was born on July 7, 2009, and is an assistant to Walker's merch team. Baylor worked the merch booth on his dad's "Fancy Like" tour, where he chatted with fans before the shows — an experience he claimed beat "being at home."

"I got emotional just talking to him at the end of the night. He was so excited. He was learning how to serve people and how to work with people. He just absolutely loved it," Walker recalled. "He told me, 'Dad, this is way better than being at home.'" At home, Walker often refers to Baylor as "Bay Bay."

In another interview with PEOPLE, Walker shared that his greatest joy is writing music about the memories he's made with his family. "If I wake up and I've got six kids that are alive, and they walk down the stairs, and my wife is alive, and she comes down the stairs, and we're together, and we've got a roof over our heads, and I'm writing a song — man, that's about as good as life gets right there," he said.

Beckett Hayes, 12

The pair welcomed their fourth child together, son Beckett, on Aug. 31, 2011. Of all her kids, Beckett's arrival was the most "crazy," Laney revealed on the Bobby Bones Show.

"It was an unintentional natural delivery," she said, adding she nearly gave birth to Beckett in the car on their way to the hospital. "We had the other kids with us because there was no other choice. It was kind of like, 'Everyone get in the car! We gotta go!' "

"We just left [the children] at the front desk," Walker added. The couple said a nurse was nice enough to color with Lela, Chapel and Baylor in the waiting room. Becket arrived within minutes, Lela continued, "It was coming-down-the-hall-of-the-hospital quick."

He was also the muse behind the song "Beckett" off Walker's 2017 record, boom. The proud dad sings about his then-4-year-old son's favorite things, from munching on "fat Froot Loops" to taking "advantage of the bathtub acoustics."

Loxley Hayes, 10

Loxley, or "Lolly" as her family calls her, was born on Aug. 7, 2013, and is already following in her father's musical footsteps.

At age 9, she made her professional singing debut on her dad's new single "if father time had a daughter," whose music video is a compilation of "daddy-daughter" home videos shot by Walker, Lela, Loxley and Everly. Loxley can be heard harmonizing with her dad in the background.

Their father-daughter relationship is rooted in music. In 2019, Walker released a song titled "I Hope You Miss Me" in honor of Loxley and her musical aspirations. "To me the sounds of this song and the lyrics emotionally embody something my daughter, Loxley, told me one time when she was 4 years old — 'Daddy you can hold me, but you can't hold me forever — that's what I hope 'I Hope You Miss Me' feels like," Walker told Sounds Like Nashville.

Loxley also likes to occasionally steal the mic from her dad during concert warm-ups.

Everly Hayes, 7

Walker and Laney welcomed their sixth child together, daughter Everly, on Aug. 27, 2015.

During her dad's "Fancy Like" tour, Everly wasted no time getting to know each concert venue like the back of her hand. Walker told PEOPLE it was exciting for him and Laney to see Everly "have a little freedom" after living in such cramped corners on the road.

"They love it — discovering where the bathroom is, where the green room is. And 'Here's the food, Dad, and I'm gonna get some food.' The little ones are so cute, like little ones are," Walker said.

Everly, her siblings and Laney can often be spotted rocking out to their dad's live performances stageside. The privilege of being able to glance over and see seven familiar faces in a sea of thousands was not lost on Walker during his "Fancy Like" tour. "I never have to say goodbye to my wife and kids," he said at the time. "I literally hug them before I go onstage, and I hug them when I get off."

Oakleigh Klover Hayes

In June 2018, Walker announced that their seventh child, a daughter named Oakleigh Klover, died days before her due date at the hospital. Two months later, in August, the couple shared with PEOPLE that Oakleigh's death was the result of a uterine rupture.

"'What do I do?' " Hayes recalled to PEOPLE of that tragic day. "'When Laney wakes up, how do I tell her? How am I the one to explain, it's a girl, but you know, she died?' I knew that was just going to crush Laney."

Before he had time to process the death of his newborn, the nurse relayed that Laney's life was also in critical condition. "I really just hoped that this wasn't going to be the worst day of my life, even though it kind of already was," he said.

"Oakleigh was in my abdominal cavity, and that's what all the pressure was. But we didn't know that then, obviously," Laney explained. "I remember going to sleep hoping the baby was okay. I had no idea I was in danger ... I remember feeling like I didn't think it was all going to be okay, but still hoping."

Following her two-hour surgery and massive blood transfusions, Walker was able to console Laney and tell her about Oakleigh. The pair, along with their oldest child, spent the rest of the day with Oakleigh's body. "Watching Walker hold her, you felt like she's just going to wake up. You think, oh, please, just let her start breathing ... She was swaddled and she just looked like a newborn baby," Laney said.

In honor of Oakleigh, Walker got his late daughter's first and middle names, as well as her footprint tattooed on his left inner forearm. "He'd always wanted to do a tattoo, but there was nothing that ever felt important enough," Laney explained. "This was the first time there was really something that was important enough."

Their six children have found their own ways to memorialize Oakleigh. They all painted rocks to decorate Oakleigh's grave with. Lela wrote a rap about her baby sister, while Chapel built a virtual memorial for her in his video game. Everly and Loxley also like to remind their family that Oakleigh is now "with Jesus."

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