Katharine McPhee is proud she gets to showcase her romance with husband David Foster on the stage.
During an exclusive interview with The Post to promote her new murder mystery series “The Artist”, McPhee, 41, opened up about the couple’s joint tour, “An Intimate Evening with David Foster & Katharine McPhee,” that has been been running for several years.
“It definitely wasn’t part of our plan, but me and David have just been touring our asses off since COVID,” McPhee said. “Again, it wasn’t our plan, but because I think there was not a whole lot going on, we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s just go on tour together for a certain period time.’ And then we just kept going. We just keep doing more and more dates and the shows are so fun.”
The “Over It” singer admitted that traveling “is the hard part” of the tour, but getting to perform with her 76-year-old husband makes it worth it.
“The actual stage time where we get to engage with an audience and tell our story of this unconventional way that we met — I was a contestant on ‘American Idol’ and he was a guest mentor — we get to tell these really interesting stories of our unconventional love story,” she shared. “So we enjoy it.”
“I know it’s not forever,” McPhee acknowledged. “We’re not going to be touring forever. But in the meantime, it’s been a great way to to make a living.”
McPhee met Foster when she appeared on Season 5 of “American Idol” in 2006. They officially got together in 2017, after McPhee’s divorce from husband Nick Cokas.
Ever since they fell in love, the “Smash” actress has been able to hear about and learn from Foster’s incredible music producing stories.
“It’s rare because i don’t just ask him randomly out of curiosity. It’s like something has to sort of spark my interest,” she said when asked if she picks her husband’s brain about music. “I know for sure that I asked him when you were recording Whitney [Houston] doing ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or Celine Dion doing ‘All By Myself,’ these crazy notes, these crazy moments, he’s hoping that he’s going to create history, right? Like, was your jaw just on the ground when you were hearing these vocals come out?”
“And he’s just so funny,” McPhee added. “He’s like, ‘No. No, we’re just doing a job.’”
The “Waitress” star continued, “It’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t be a spectator, as opposed to being the person who’s creating all of this. But I’ll ask him things like that. I like his story when he talks about finding Celine Dion for the first time. Those are stories I’ve heard a lot. But yeah, I know most of his little secrets.”
When she married Foster, McPhee became stepmom to his five daughters: Allison, 55, Amy, 52, Sara, 44, Erin, 43, and Jordan, 40. The couple welcomed their first child together, son Rennie, 4, in Feb. 2021.
McPhee told The Post how proud she is of Sara and Erin for the success of their Netflix series “Nobody Wants This” starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell.
“I’m just such a huge fan of Erin’s writing. I think she’s brilliant,” McPhee said. “She is so conversational and it’s just so her like, if you know Erin, which obviously I do, she’s my stepdaughter, but she just has a very unique voice. And it’s so thrilling to see this show come to life. And it’s just so her. It’s exactly who she is.”
“Their success is inspiring. And also these girls have come from a upbringing that was exposed to a lot of celebrity,” McPhee continued. “And they grew up in a world where their dad was with all these major superstars, and it never jaded them, and it never made them feel entitled that they should have all those things just because of the world that they grew up in. So I’m like really proud of them.”
McPhee also noted how Foster’s successful children have influenced how she raises her 4-year-old son.
“Sometimes when I tell David not to be so hard on Rennie in some ways, I’ll just jump in and then I’ll stop myself because I’m like, wait, he’s done a good job with Erin, Sara, Jordan and Amy and all the other kids,” she said. “I’ll let him have this one.”
