Harrison Smith’s wife – She and the NFL player met long before they started dating in 2012

Harrison Smith’s wife Madison Bankston has known her husband for most of his life. The two met when they were still in elementary school, and although they weren’t close at the time, they had many mutual friends.

Bankston and Smith have a great relationship. The couple support and challenge each other to be their best version.

Bankston not only supports her husband’s football career, but is also actively involved in his charities. The couple have an amazing wedding, as evidenced by the photos she shares on her Instagram.

Who is Madison Bankston?

According to her LinkedIn profile, Harrison Smith’s wife studied at the University of Tennessee. She is an account manager at SumTotal Systems, which provides market-leading human capital management software solutions to businesses around the world.

Over the years, Bankston has honed her professional skills within the company and she seems committed to the organization, given that she hasn’t changed jobs in 11 years.

As an account manager, Bankston is in charge of various call points within the company. She also helps identify critical business issues and develop IT solutions to improve employee performance.

Apart from being engaged in her professional work, Bankston also has an active social life. She frequently shares photos of herself, her husband and their child on her Instagram account.

Madison and Harrison met long before they started dating

Bankston and Smith had known each other for most of their lives, even before they started dating in 2012. The two first met in elementary school on a Tennessee youth swim team.

The duo didn’t bond immediately but developed their friendship over time. Smith revealed that back then, when he was eight years old, the first thing that came to his mind when he saw Bankston was that he thought she was mean. Bankston jokingly replied that she was like that because Smith was boring.

On the other hand, Bankston’s earliest memory of Smith is when he would play the role of little brother to her, her sisters, and her friends. She remembers when they went swimming they would relax in the shallow end and Smith would jump in the pool and spray water on them.

Prior to her marriage, Bankston used to visualize the location and was happy for everything to manifest as she wished.

Although Smith was not a great swimmer at the time, he revealed that Bankston was a star swimmer. At that time, the two barely knew each other well, but they had mutual friends. Smith and Bankston started out as acquaintances and slowly became close friends even though it was a long distance friendship.

Madison was totally unaware of the proposal

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, everything stopped; many events were canceled, including the 2020 NLF pre-season league, so most athletes had to quarantine at home with their families. During this period, Smith saw the perfect opportunity to get down on one knee and propose to his longtime girlfriend.

Harrison Smith’s wife’s proposal came as a surprise as she never thought the proposal would happen in her parents’ garden, where she used to play as a child. Smith and Bankston’s mother worked secretly to make sure everything went according to plan without her suspecting anything.

The two agreed that Bankston’s mother would organize them and invite them to dinner at her house one evening in July. Everything went according to plan, even though Bankston was unprepared for the occasion: she was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts.

When Smith asked her about her outfit, she replied that since they were going to dinner at her mother’s, she’d rather be there on time than look good. Later, when the duo arrived at Bankston’s mother’s house, Harrison Smith’s wife remarked that her mother looked gorgeous and glamorous.

Bankston said she realized something special was about to happen when her mother escorted her into their garden. Shortly after, Smith looked at her, smiled, got down on one knee, and proposed. It was a special occasion for Smith and Bankston as they celebrated their engagement with their parents.

The Smiths had a ‘great little wedding’

Smith and Bankston exchanged vows in North Carolina. Their wedding ceremony took place on a Saturday at the beautiful Biltmore estate in Asheville. Their marriage was minimal and was attended only by close family and friends. Speaking about their special occasion, Smith said:

“It was a great little wedding, and luckily it was a black tie…so it worked out.”

The wedding venue held special significance for Bankston as she had visited the estate several times with her father as a child. According to Bankston, the place was special for her and her father, who died in 2013.

She was happy to have been able to celebrate one of the most beautiful days of her life in a place where she felt at home in the presence of her family and friends.

Prior to her marriage, Bankston used to visualize the location and was happy for everything to manifest as she wished. Athletes in attendance included Xavier Rhodes and Eric Kendricks, among others.

The couple welcomed their baby a year after getting married

On May 31, 2022, the couple welcomed their first child and named her Eleanore James Smith. In an interview, Smith opened up about being a first-time parent and said he loved being a dad.

He said he loved spending time, bonding with his daughter and seeing her smile. He also said that while he instilled discipline in raising his daughter, he would be more of a fun dad. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary in April, a month before the birth of their daughter.

Besides Smith’s long-term relationship with his wife, other athletes known to have long-term relationships include Peyton Manning and his wife.