Rumors that the two musicians had secretly gotten married have been bouncing around since 2011 fall, partially spurred by photos apparently showing the pair wearing wedding rings on November 2011. Speaking to the Independent, the Led Zeppelin legend strongly hints at, but stops shy of fully confirming the news: “I eloped and ran off to Texas. So now I spend half my time there and half here [in the UK].”
One week after this rumours run the net, on July 2012 Robert Plant said that he’d eloped with Patty Griffin, he didn’t actually mean he’d married her. That’s what a rep for the former Led Zeppelin singer tells the Hollywood Reporter. “Robert has not married Patty Griffin” the rep says, adding that Plant was “just referring to the fact that he’s been residing in Texas.” Technically to elope is to run away and marry without permission from one’s parents. It doesn’t seem likely the 63-year-old Plant would have to hide such an arrangement with his Band of Joy bandmate. In a recent interview Patty said the couple were not "legally" married.
Plant and Griffin have been dating since 2010, and they spend half of their time together in Austin, Texas and the rest between Nashville and the UK.
In July 2010, Robert Plant toured the United States with Band of Joy (reprising the name of his very first band in the 1960s). Patty Griffin toured with them as a backing vocalist to Plant, along with singer-guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Darrell Scott, bassist-vocalist Byron House, and drummer-percussionist-vocalist Marco Giovino. She is also featured on Plant's solo album, Band of Joy, which was released in September 2010 by Rounder Records.
Griffin and Plant are currently living together and divide their time between Austin, Texas and England, where her album American Kid was released on May 7, 2013.