Willie Nelson’s Wives: The Country Icon’s Marriages and Finding Lasting Love With His Wife of 34 Years

Willie Nelson is a living legend of country music, and over the course of his nearly 70-year career, his signature mellow vocals and decades of creative collaborations have earned him a multigenerational following and universal acclaim as an icon who defines his genre.

As a prolific songwriter, Nelson has frequently turned to his personal life for inspiration—and there’s certainly a lot of material to draw from, given that he’s had four marriages and eight children. Keep reading for a look at the outlaw country king’s love life, from scandalous affairs to his current marriage of over 30 years.

Willie Nelson’s dramatic first wife: Martha Matthews

Nelson married his first wife, Martha Matthews, in 1952, when he was 19 and she was 16. They had two daughters, Lana, who has designed costumes for her dad’s films and serves as the family’s unofficial historian, and Susie, who wrote a memoir about her life with Nelson in 1987 and cohosted a radio show with him in 2012. Their son, William “Billy” Hugh Jr., who duetted with Nelson, tragically died by suicide in 1991.

Nelson and Matthews’ marriage was a tumultuous one. The musician was initially drawn to her because he “was always a sucker for long-black-haired women,” but the couple fought frequently and Matthews was physically abusive to him. They divorced in 1962, and Matthews died of liver failure at 53 in 1989.

In 2012, Nelson discovered he had fathered a child with Mary Haney, an old friend he’d had an affair with in 1953, during his first marriage. That child, Renee, went on to become a graphic designer and died at 64 in 2017.

Willie Nelson’s musical second wife: Shirley Collie

Nelson married fellow country singer Shirley Collie in 1963. They were partners in life and music, as Collie played bass in his band and their 1962 duet “Willingly” was the first Nelson song to make it into Billboard’s country music chart. Collie was the inspiration for his song “Half a Man” (1963), which he wrote during their honeymoon.

Nelson and his second wife cowrote the songs “Little Things” (1968), “Pages” (1969) and “She’s Still Gone” (1970), and Collie was the sole credited writer on his songs “I Hope So” (1969), “Once More With Feeling” (1970), and “Shelter of Your Arms” (1977). In his 2023 book, Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs, Nelson called Collie “super-talented” and “a superb singer.”

Nelson and Collie were creative equals, but their marriage imploded when Collie found a hospital bill for the birth of a baby—and the bill had Nelson’s name on it. Collie was understandably angry, and they divorced in 1971. She died in 2010 at age 78.

Connie Koepke, the mother of Nelson’s out-of-wedlock child, would become his next wife, and their daughter, Paula, went on to be a country singer and radio DJ, and has duetted with her dad.

Willie Nelson’s mistress-turned-third-wife: Connie Koepke

Nelson’s relationship with Connie Koepke may have started in scandal, but the couple wed in 1971 and stayed married for 17 years. They had a second daughter, Amy, who became a musician and activist. Nelson’s 1973 song “Devil in a Sleeping Bag” was inspired by his experience missing Koepke and his daughters while he was on the road.

After more than a decade of marriage to Koepke, Nelson had an affair with Annie D’Angelo, a makeup artist he met during the filming of Stagecoach, a 1986 TV movie he starred in. Nelson and Koepke divorced in 1988, and he married D’Angelo in 1991.

In his 2020 memoir, Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band, Nelson candidly wrote of his regrets about cheating on Koepke and his previous wives, saying, “I messed up another marriage. My wandering ways were too much for any woman to put up with. I’ll always love Connie. I’ll always love all my wives. I’ve always said that there’s no such thing as a ‘former’ wife. Once in your life, a wife never leaves. I regret the pain I caused Connie—and Martha and Shirley before her—and have no excuses. But love is love, and in the mid-eighties I fell head over heels in love with Ann Marie D’Angelo, called Annie. Never had met a woman like her before.”

Willie Nelson’s current wife of 34 years: Annie D’Angelo

Nelson has been married to his current wife, Annie D’Angelo, since 1991. They first bonded during the filming of the 1986 Western Stagecoach, in which Nelson starred and D’Angelo served as makeup artist, when they mutually agreed that Nelson shouldn’t have his signature long hair cut for the film. The couple has two sons, Lukas and Micah, both of whom are musicians who have frequently collaborated with their famous father.

In 1998, Nelson wrote “Annie,” an instrumental composition inspired by his wife. According to his book Energy Follows Thought, he was originally going to put words to the song, but she told him, “Our feelings for each other are precious, but private. And I’d like to keep it that way,” so he respected her wishes.

Nelson and his wife have collaborated creatively, and in 2024, they coauthored Willie and Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook: Mouthwatering Recipes and the High-Flying Stories Behind Them.

Nelson wrote lovingly of Annie in his 2020 memoir, saying, “When it came to romance, I had a gift for complicating things. But marrying Annie wasn’t complicated at all. It’s about the smartest thing I ever did. I can say that because, 34 years after we first met, we’re still together and going strong.”

Reflecting on his marriage in an interview with People, Nelson said, “She’s my lover, my wife, nurse, doctor, bodyguard,” and it’s clear that after more than three decades of wedded bliss and all the turbulent affairs and marriages that preceded it, the country great has finally found lasting love.