Alan Jackson shares Christmas picture with wife Denise from 1978 as they welcome first grandchild
CLARKSVILLE, GEORGIA: Country music icon Alan Jackson shared a throwback picture of him and his wife Denise Jackson during a Christmas they spent together as an homage to her. Jackson can be seen gazing happily into the camera, while Denise was beaming broadly.
Jackson and Denise have been together their entire lives. They fell in love before they graduated from high school. When the pair was barely 18 years old in 1979, they felt they were prepared to make their relationship public, per AmoMama.
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Soon after graduating and getting married, the couple took the decision to leave their Georgia hometown so that Jackson may follow his dream of becoming a country singer. They established their joint life in Nashville after arriving. They relocated to a small apartment in the town. From there, Jackson tried to sell his music to anyone who would listen. He had to sell his favorite car to pay for a real house after they had their first child in their run-down dwelling, according to AmoMama.
Denise, however, was well aware of the significance of the car to her husband, and after Jackso finally achieved success as a musician, she took the decision to locate his old car, purchase it, and give it to her devoted husband as a Christmas present. Despite some difficult times in their marriage, the couple remained together for an astonishing 43 years. Even when Alan acknowledged having an affair while on tour, their relationship still endured. In an interview with CBS, he said, "I'm a human being just like anybody and make mistakes, and I think it was even better to see that we survived that and have turned it around."
After the incident, the pair briefly parted ways, yet they remained close to one another. After settling their disagreements, they later remarried. They had three children together. In another interview in Taste of Country, the couple claimed that spending time together was the key to a successful marriage. "We try to get out and go to dinner or hang out and go to the movies or something. We build a fire and have some wine and a nice evening," they reportedly said.
In November, when Jackson was presented with the CMA Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, he gave a moving acceptance speech in which he praised his wife and thanked her for supporting him through the years. "As my mama would say, I'm so blessed. I've had a great team around me my whole career that has helped me, great songwriters. I've been so fortunate to have all that to help me get this far. I can't thank everybody who's been in my life all these years, but I do have to say thanks to my wife Denise, over there somewhere," he reportedly said.
"We started out as teenagers... I'm probably not always the easiest person to love, but she's been there and helped me through hard times. And we've shared great times. The good, the bad, the happy, and the sad, we've survived a lot. I just want to thank her because she's held me up all these years and she's my best friend. And she gave me a wonderful family over there," he reportedly concluded.
The couple became grandparents for the first time on December 13. Their daughter Ali and her husband Sam Bradshaw had a son. Jackson also posted a photo to Instagram to mark the occasion, writing, "So happy that this little guy has made us grandparents!"