Willie Nelson: Abused by his wife, infidelity, and true love -- inside the country icon's 4 tumultuous marriages
It should hardly come as a surprise that Willie Nelson is one of the most influential singer-songwriters in the world of music. To pay tribute to his legacy, the music industry is coming together to celebrate his contributions to the world of music with 'Willie Nelson: American Outlaw'. The A&E special focuses on performances from the January 2019 concert 'Willie: Life & Songs Of An American Outlaw, A Willie Nelson All-Star Concert Celebration'.
Highlighting Nelson's seven-decade long career and over 200 of his albums, the A&E 2-hour special focuses on 20 never before televised performances from the live musical event featuring performances by George Strait, Jimmy Buffett, Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews, Eric Church, Emmylou Harris, Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Norah Jones and The Little Willies among others.
But even as his seven-decade long career is celebrated time and again, Nelson has lived a very tumultuous personal life with four marriages and seven children.
He met Martha Matthews when he was 18 and she was 16. "It was love - my first full blast of love, the kind of love where you lose your mind and let your heart lead the way," he had once said about their relationship. They tied the knot when he was 19 and Matthews was just 16 years old.
His marriage to Martha was a violent one, where he suffered abuse at the hands of his wife. At one time, she sewed him up in bedsheets and beat him with a broomstick. "By the time I got loose, she'd lit out in the car with the kids, her clothes and my clothes," he had said in an interview.
The couple had three children Lana, Susie and Willie 'Billy' Hugh Jr. His youngest son killed himself in 1991.
Nelson's second marriage with country music singer Shirley Collie was smooth for eight years. Collie and Nelson tied the knot in 1963 a year after the release of their debut duet 'Willingly'. The marriage was a second one for both the singers and they didn't have any children together. Together they created magic in their 1962 duet 'Willingly'. But when Collie found a bill from the maternity ward of a Houston hospital for the birth of Paula Carlene Nelson, Nelson's daughter with Connie Koepke, the infidelity pushed her to seek separation and the couple got divorced in 1971.
After his divorce with Collie, he married Koepke, a film producer, in the same year, and they had another daughter named Amy Lee Nelson.
Nelson was to divorce Koepke in 1988, eventually marrying his wife, Annie D'Angelo, his current wife, in 1991. Together, they have two sons, Lukas Autry and Jacob Micah. His marriage with Annie is the longest. They first met when she was working as a makeup artist for his 1986 television movie 'Stagecoach'. "She’s been with me through thick and thin - you can’t ask for anything more than that," he had said during an interview in 2014. Nelson's closest allies credit Annie for keeping his health from deteriorating.
Even with failed marriages in his past, Nelson doesn't refer to any of his ex-wives as his exes, each one of them still remains a member of his family. "You don’t have to be selfish because your ambition and drive is for your family members as much as for yourself," he had said in an interview. "Along the way you pick up wives and kids and you are responsible for them. You don't discard them. There is no such thing as ex-wives, only additional wives."