Country music is all about three chords and the truth, and sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Read on to see which country stars have had the most volatile marriages over the decades.

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Buck Owens + Jana Jae Greif

Buck Owens’ marriage to his fiddle player, Jana Jae Grief, was very short-lived, but by all accounts, it was remarkably contentious.

The couple were married just four days, and after they wed in a Las Vegas chapel, Owens told Grief the following day, “I own you lock, stock and barrel,” according to People.

He filed for an annulment just days later, claiming “unsound mind,” and Grief later counter-filed for an annulment. Their divorce went through in August of 1977.

lorrie morgan sammy kershaw marriage

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Lorrie Morgan + Sammy Kershaw

Lorrie Morgan and Sammy Kershaw turned out to a very combustible combination during their marriage.

In 2003, the National Enquirer ran a piece that described a fight during which Morgan alleged Kershaw “slammed me down in a wooden kitchen chair and … told me he was going to bite my (expletive) nose off.”

A judge ordered them to stay away from one another and cease all forms of communication, but incredibly, the couple ended up reconciling and renewing their vows before they finally broke up for good in 2007.

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Loretta Lynn + Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn

Loretta Lynn’s 48-year marriage to her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, was stormy, but according to the country legend, it was also mostly happy.

Lynn married when she was just 15, and her husband actually bought her first guitar and encouraged her to sing. She chronicled their tempestuous ups and downs in her songs and in her autobiography, detailing his drinking, womanizing and their fights, which sometimes turned physical.

However, they stayed married until his death in 1996, and she remembered him fondly all the way up until her own death in 2022.

george jones tammy wynette marriage

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George Jones + Tammy Wynette

George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s extremely turbulent marriage is the stuff of country music legend.

The couple married in 1969, and Wynette filed for divorce in 1973, alleging that Jones’ problems with alcohol and drugs had led to a number of violent confrontations.

Wynette also claimed that Jones had chased her around their house with a loaded shotgun. He denied that, but admitted that he disappeared for days at a time due to his cocaine and alcohol use.

They reconciled, but finally divorced in 1975. The former couple continued to record music together in the years after their divorce, and remained in each other’s lives until Wynette’s untimely death in 1998.

willie nelson martha matthews marriage

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Willie Nelson + Martha Matthews

Willie Nelson and his first wife, Martha Matthews, are another country couple whose marital difficulties have taken on legendary status over the years.

The union was stormy due to Nelson’s drinking and womanizing and her fiery temper, and it came to an end in one of the most famous stories in country music history.

In 1962, after ten years of marriage, Nelson came home drunk one too many times, and his fed-up wife sewed him into a bedsheet and beat him with a broomstick before taking their kids and all of his and her clothes and leaving him for good.

trace adkins wife shot him in the heart

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Trace Adkins + Julie Curtis

Trace Adkins has been married four times, but his marriage to his second wife, Julie Curtis, takes the cake.

Adkins has made no secret of the fact that he’s struggled with alcohol over the decades, and during an argument about his drinking that turned violent one night, Curtis pointed a loaded gun at the singer and ended up shooting him in the heart when he tried to disarm her.

Adkins was not expected to survive, but he recovered after emergency open heart surgery. He chose not to press charges, but the incident ended the marriage, and the singer still undergoes regular heart checkups to this day.

jana kramer mike caussin marriage

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Jana Kramer + Mike Caussin

Jana Kramer and Mike Caussin made tabloid headlines during their marriage as they struggled again and again with his infidelity.

The couple wed in 2015, and they had two kids together. They separated in 2016 after she found out he’d cheated on her with multiple women, but they reconciled and renewed their vows in 2017 after he went to rehab for sex addiction.

Kramer filed for divorce in 2021 after finding out that Caussin had cheated on her once again, and the divorce went through shortly afterward.

jimmie allen alexis gale marriage

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Jimmie Allen + Alexis Gale

Jimmie Allen and Alexis Gale weathered a tremendous amount of turbulence before they apparently finally went their separate ways.

The couple married in 2021, and she filed for divorce in April of 2023 amid allegations that the singer had sexually assaulted two different women.

They later reconciled after the birth of their son, and Allen reached a settlement with one of his accusers.

However, it appears the divorce may have gone through in the meantime, though they have not confirmed that in public. Allen admitted in March of 2024 that he fathered twins with another women during the period of time that his accusers came forward and his wife filed for divorce.

joe don rooney tiffany fallon marriage

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Joe Don Rooney + Tiffany Fallon

Rascal Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney’s marriage to former Playboy model Tiffany Fallon was thought to be happy from the outside, but the truth came out after the musician’s arrest for DUI in 2021.

He crashed his car into a tree in the early morning hours, and the couple went through a very bitter and public divorce afterward, with her accusing him of abusing alcohol and drugs, while both parties claimed the other had been unfaithful.

Rooney would later admit that his drinking had been an issue for years, writing, “I was not a good father — I was not a good husband — and I was not a good bandmate to my business partners … I probably would’ve never taken responsibility for any of this if it hadn’t been for my car wreck on Sep 9, 2021.”

Rooney celebrated 28 months sober in January of 2024.

sara evans jay barker marriage

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Sara Evans + Jay Barker

Sara Evans and her second husband, former pro football player Jay Barker, also appeared to be happy in their marriage from the outside, but that illusion was shattered in January of 2022, when Barker was arrested after he allegedly tried to ram his car into another car that Evans was riding in.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and Evans later revealed that the couple’s relationship has been rife with jealousy for years, implying that it sometimes turned abusive.

However, Evans revealed on her podcast in March of 2024 that she and Barker have been in counseling and have reconciled.

billy ray cyrus firerose marriage

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Billy Ray Cyrus + Firerose

Billy Ray Cyrus and his estranged wife, Firerose, were only married for about seven months before they went their separate ways, and divorce documents that have become public have blown the lid off of their marriage.

Cyrus filed for divorce first on May 23, 2024, citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct as his reasons, The singer is also seeking an annulment, claiming fraud.

Firerose fired back in a counter-filing of her own, accusing Cyrus of “persistent” drug use and “extreme verbal, emotional and psychological abuse.”

Their divorce is still in the works.