Kurt and Brenda Warner's Relationship Timeline

Kurt Warner and Brenda Warner (née Meoni) have been married since 1997. Their relationship first began when the two met while line dancing at a country-western bar in northern Iowa in the early '90s when neither was looking for nor expecting to find love.

The decades-long love story took the couple from living in Brenda's parents' basement to Kurt's success as a Hall of Fame and Super Bowl-winning quarterback and raising seven kids.

"There were days that you wondered if you were going to endure it," Kurt told PEOPLE for an exclusive story in December 2021. "But I think the mindset [that] both of us had was to take things one day at a time. That helps you to ultimately appreciate all the blessings that would come our way."

From staying up all night dancing in a bar to a movie being made about their love story, here's everything to know about Kurt and Brenda Warner's relationship.

1992: Kurt Warner and Brenda Meoni meet at a country-western bar near Cedar Falls, Iowa

When they first met, Kurt was a struggling 21-year-old quarterback at the University of Northern Iowa who, he told PEOPLE, "sat on the bench for four years" as his NFL dreams seemed to be fading by the day. Brenda, then 25, was a newly-divorced single mom of two working her way through nursing school. She'd started line dancing with her mom, who'd insisted she needed to get out more.

"I did not want to meet a man," said Brenda. "I was going to nursing school. I was discharged from the Marine Corps, a single mom, on food stamps. It was a tough time in my life."

When Kurt and Brenda encountered each other at that bar in 1992, neither was looking for nor expecting to find love. The universe, however, had other plans. In a 2017 interview with ESPN, the couple explained that they were paired up together during one of the dances and exchanged names afterward. They stayed until the bar closed.

"Timing, fate, whatever you want to say, that dance ends with us partnered up," Kurt recalled to PEOPLE. "I asked her to keep dancing and that's really how this whole thing started, a chance meeting when she didn't want to go out, I didn't want to and somebody forced us to go out, and all of this came from it."

The next morning, Kurt showed up at Brenda's parents' house asking to meet her children.

"I wouldn't believe it unless I lived it," Brenda said. "But from that moment that we met it really was meant to be."

1992: Kurt wins over Brenda's son, Zach

A key fixture in the couple's sweet story is their son Zach, who Brenda credits with making her see something special in Kurt. Before their line dancing encounter, Brenda was newly divorced from her first husband. The couple welcomed Zach in 1989, but when he was just 4 months old, his father accidentally dropped the baby in the bathtub — leaving Zach blind and with brain damage.

"Every dream that you have just gets crushed, because now it's just survival," Brenda told PEOPLE, who was working in Marine intelligence at the time. "But in the Marines, I learned that you do what you have to do. Zach and I didn't know what our future was, but we were going to do this together."

Brenda took a hardship discharge from the Corps to care for Zach. While she was pregnant with her daughter Jesse, her husband cheated on her and they divorced before the baby's arrival, mere months before she met Kurt.

When Kurt showed up unexpectedly at a skeptical Brenda's door the day after their encounter (he'd gotten her address from a mutual friend), Zach, then 3, "grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house," said Kurt.

"When I walked out and he was wrestling on the floor with Zach, the way he looked at my son with pure love, no judgment, no expectation, just loved him, that's all it took for me," Brenda said. "He fell in love with my kids before he fell in love with me. That's when I knew he was worthy of being in our lives, of our love."

1996: A deadly tornado inspires Kurt to propose to Brenda

In 1996, Brenda's parents were tragically killed when a tornado leveled their Arkansas home. During an interview with KSDK News (via History vs. Hollywood), the couple revealed that this event inspired Kurt to finally propose to Brenda.

"We had been dating four years, and he still hadn't decided if I was the one," Brenda said. "So, when this happened, it just kind of put things in perspective. What's important? What do I want? Are you going to be along for this ride? So it was more of a shift in [Kurt]." Brenda went on to say that she knew Kurt was the one for her, but that during those first four years he wasn't sure whether he felt the same way.

Kurt explained that he hadn't taken the relationship too seriously at first. He was dreaming about playing in the NFL during college and what the couple had at the time was great but not necessarily the biggest priority until they were faced with this tragedy. "That was a key moment for me in a lot of different ways to really settle me and go, 'Alright, figure this thing out right now because you got a family here that needs you or needs someone to step in and help them move forward.'"

October 11, 1997: Kurt Warner and Brenda Meoni get married

Kurt and Brenda got married on Oct. 11, 1997, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

During an interview with Access on Oct. 6, 2010, the couple shared that faith and spending time together has made their marriage successful.

"We have to make our marriage a priority," Brenda said. "With seven kids, you don't get a lot of time... But we make time for each other... I think that we just have a lot of fun together."

1998: Kurt Warner joins the St. Louis Rams

One year after the Warners were married, Kurt's NFL dreams finally came true. After working odd jobs — like stocking shelves at a grocery store — and playing in the Arena Football League, he was invited to join the St. Louis Rams in 1998, and then promoted to starting quarterback the following year. He led the team to the Super Bowl in 2000, where he was also named Super Bowl MVP. He played another 11 seasons, with both the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals, before retiring from the league in 2010.

"One of the things I'm grateful for is that Brenda gave up her passions to allow me to chase mine," Kurt told PEOPLE. "She had to put her career and her dreams on hold."

December 19, 2005: Kurt and Brenda Warner welcome twin daughters

In December 2005, Brenda gave birth to twin daughters Sierra and Sienna. The two were the couple's sixth and seventh children. On their 17th birthday in 2022, Brenda shared on Twitter that Kurt's reaction to having twins was, "What vehicle holds nine people?!" Brenda said: "We found a van, we raised the kids, we are grateful."

January 29, 2010: Kurt Warner announces his retirement from the NFL

On Jan. 29, 2010, Kurt Warner announced his retirement from the NFL in Arizona, surrounded by his family.

Brenda told ESPN that the decision to retire came after a hard hit Kurt took during a game at New Orleans on Jan. 16, 2010.

“When he laid there, I was done,” Brenda said. “I knew I was done. And I think at that moment, when you realize a child that has a disability and has brain damage and I get to see him struggle every day and it’s not going to get better, that this is what life is, that always played a part with every hit that Kurt took, in my own mind.”

August 5, 2017: Kurt Warner is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with Brenda Warner presenting

In 2017, Kurt Warner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well as the Arena Football Hall of Fame. Before the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony, Brenda assumed that Kurt would ask Dick Vermeil, the former coach of the St. Louis Rams, to present him. When Kurt asked Brenda to present him instead, his wife admitted she was shocked and joked if everyone else had said no.

"I just thought it was so odd that he asked me and then he went on to say all the beautiful things that you've heard him say, that nobody has sacrificed as much as you have and all the wonderful things that a wife wound want to hear, and it just touched my heart," Brenda told ESPN at the time.

For Kurt, there was never any doubt that Brenda would introduce him at the Hall of Fame. He acknowledged that throughout his journey, his wife was the one who stood by his side and sacrificed so that he could chase his dream.

“I just really believe that being up on the stage, it’s a part of so many different people that helped me to get there, but she’s the one that I believe deserves to share that moment with me and share that stage with me. That is why I chose Brenda to present me," Kurt said.

March 2021: Brenda Warner shares a video of the couple's wedding reception

On March 22, 2021, Brenda posted a video on her Instagram showing their son, Zach, singing to Kurt at the couple's wedding reception in 1997. The song of choice was Tracy Byrd's "The Keeper of the Stars."

2021: Brenda Warner discovers a passion for welding

Before her 50th birthday, Brenda realized she had a passion of her own: creating metal art and jewelry.

"When I was getting ready to turn 50, my mom was killed at 50 years old, and so it was just so heavy on me thinking she didn't get any more time than that," Brenda told PEOPLE. "And I thought, 'What would I do if I didn't care what anybody thought?' I realized that I always loved metal. I loved metal art, not having a clue how to make it."

She continued: "I went and watched somebody weld, went and bought all the equipment, and went home and taught myself. I love sharing it with people. It's something that I didn't know existed until this later part in my life."

Brenda sold her art and jewelry online with all proceeds benefitting the Warners' Treasure House organization. Treasure House is a residential facility near their home in Scottsdale, Ariz., that they opened in 2018 for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities — including Zach.

"We've got another chapter to write, and a big part of that will hopefully be opening Treasure Houses all over the world," said Kurt, who has been an active fundraiser. In the meantime, they were looking forward to alone time as a couple.

"One crazy thing about our journey, is that we've never been alone together from the day we met," said Kurt. "But we're close to being empty nesters, so we're looking forward to when we get to be together — and just be us."

2021: Kurt and Brenda Warner's love story is adapted into the movie American Underdog

After years of being told their story would make a great movie, the couple's real-life romance became front and center in the drama American Underdog (released on Dec. 25, 2021), starring Zachary Levi as Kurt and Anna Paquin as Brenda.