He’s Quite the Catch! Get to Know ‘Bringing Up Bates’ Star Carlin Bates’ Husband Evan Stewart
![Carlin Bates and Evan Stewart](https://www.intouchweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Who-Is-Evan-Stewart-Meet-Bringing-Up-Bates-Star-Carlin-Bates-Husband.jpg?fit=400%2C500&quality=86&strip=all&resize=400%2C500)
What a cute couple! Bringing Up Bates star Carlin Stewart (née Bates) found herself a catch when she married Evan Stewart, but just who is her husband? Fans met the Bates in-law on the family’s UPtv show, but he and his wife were actually introduced much earlier. Get the details on Evan, his marriage and his family below.
Evan and Carlin met through church.
In March 2020, Evan and Carlin shared the story of how they met on their YouTube page. As it turns out, they first crossed paths when she was 13 and he was 16, nearly a decade before they ended up walking down the aisle. “[The Bates family] came to our church in Springfield, Tennessee, because her dad would go around preaching, and their whole family would go around singing,” Evan explained. “That’s when we first met the family.”
Carlin distinctly remembers their first meeting. “You were like this blue-eyed short kid, like, with blue braces. … That’s like the only thing I remember [from] that whole visit.” As time went on, the families would visit each other’s churches and check in with each other, but it wasn’t until 2016 that they actually reconnected.
Evan almost courted one of Carlin’s sisters.
Though the Bates and Stewart families stayed friends, the husband and wife didn’t see each other much before they started courting. Not only was Carlin frequently out of town on missions trips when the Stewarts passed through, she was also seeing someone else at the time. In fact, Carlin even revealed in the vlog that someone had the idea that Evan might be a good fit for one of her sisters — though that clearly didn’t work out.
They reconnected at another church event.
When Carlin’s mom, Kelly Bates, was brought to the Stewarts’ church to speak at a Ladies’ Conference, some of the Bates girls made the last-minute decision to go with her. It’s a good thing they did, because Evan had signed up to work at the conference with the hopes that he’d get to see Carlin. The two followed each other on Instagram, and he’d developed a crush on the Christian cutie.
When Evan first laid eyes on her again, he could tell she was special. “I look up in the cafeteria at South Haven Baptist Church in Springfield, Tennessee, and I see the most gorgeous … girl walk in. Brown skirt, white blouse, I still remember it. And I see her, and I’m like, ‘Man, she is so cute.’” However, he couldn’t get up the confidence to talk to her — so eventually she started the conversation. “I [was] like, ‘Well, hey, stranger, aren’t you gonna say hey?’” Carlin remembers.
Now, they’ve got the sweetest little family.
Two years after their flirtation first started, Evan popped the question on a surprise trip to Maine. The couple ended up walking down the aisle in May 2019 with all of Carlin’s siblings by their side, and soon enough they had something else to celebrate. In September, they announced they were expecting baby No. 1, and they welcomed daughter Layla Rae Stewart in February. The little girl is too cute — and the Stewarts are just the sweetest little family of three.
Evan supports his wife and daughter with his electrician job.
The Bates Family Blog, run by friends of the Bates, revealed in March 2018 that Evan is going to school to be an electrician. In January 2019, Carlin told Knox News he’d started working as an electrician apprentice. Maybe one day he’ll collab with a member of the Bates or Duggar families when it comes to flipping a home.
We can’t wait to see what’s next for this family.
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