Alan Jackson is one of the biggest names in country music and his wife, Denise Jackson, has been along for the ride since day one.
The couple met in their hometown of Newnan, Georgia, as teenagers. After tying the knot in 1979, the high school sweethearts made their way to Nashville in the ‘80s.
After nearly five decades of marriage — which included health issues for both Alan and Denise and a brief separation in the 90s — the pair continue to lean on each other.
“We get up in the morning and drink coffee together and talk, and I can’t go to bed at night if she’s downstairs watching television. We go to bed together, unless I’m out of town,” Alan told The Boot in December 2022. “It’s just little things I think that have helped us more than anything. If you can last until you’re 40 years old, hopefully, you’ll be mature enough to figure out the rest of the years.”
While accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 ACM Awards, Alan praised Denise as his “best friend,” saying, “I wouldn’t be here without her. So there’s not much else I can say that’s better than that.”
Scroll down to see Alan and Denise’s love story from the beginning:
1976
The duo met while attending Newnan High School in Georgia. They began dating when Alan was 18 and Denise was 16, according to Today.
December 1979
After high school, the couple wed in December 1979, where Alan sang to his bride.
1985While working as a flight attendant, Denise met singer Glen Campbell in the early 1980s and talked to him about Alan, who was the lead singer of the band Dixie Steel in Georgia.
“He said, ‘Just put together a demo tape and go see Marty [Gamblin] at my office and see if he can help him,’” Denise recalled of the conversation in 2018’s Alan Jackson: Small Town Southern Man TV movie. “That was our first connection.”
After recording his demo, Alan received a songwriting contract with Campbell’s company and the couple relocated to Nashville in 1985.
1989
It wasn’t until four years later that Alan signed his first record deal with Arista Records.
June 1990Alan released his debut album, Here in the Real World, in February 1990. That same year, he and Denise welcomed their first daughter, Mattie, born in June.
The couple expanded their family with the birth of their daughter, Alexandra “Ali.”
August 1997
Alan and Denise’s youngest daughter, Dani, was born in August 1997.
April 1998After Christmas in 1997, the pair separated for four months before giving their marriage another shot in 1998.
“I think Alan got to a point after 18 years where he thought, ‘We both deserve so much more than this, and we haven’t been able to fix it yet, and I don’t think it’s fixable,'” Denise recalled to the Christian Broadcasting Network. “So that was really the turning point where he said, ‘Enough is enough. I’m leaving.'”
During their time apart, Denise learned about Alan’s infidelity, but they chose to work through it together. “There’s no one-size-fits-all kind of answer for forgiveness,” she said during the TV appearance. “For each of us, the struggle will be individual. But what I found in the long run, was that forgiveness was the key to real freedom in my life.”
October 2003
Alan wrote “Remember When” about his and Denise’s love story, which he released in October 2023. “Remember when / Thirty seemed so old / Now looking back, it’s just a stepping stone,” Alan sings in one verse. “To where we are, where we’ve been / Said we’d do it all again / Remember when.”
The track has since become one of Alan’s most iconic and beloved songs. It hit No. 1 on Billboard’s US Hot Country Songs chart and went four-times platinum. Denise and Alan were featured slow dancing in the corresponding music video.
July 2007
Denise recalled some of the harder times in her marriage in her 2007’s book, It’s All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life, in which the “him” refers to God and letting the lord take the wheel.
“Alan has such a strong personality, and the more his career grew, the more insecure I felt, and the more I absorbed myself into his world,” Denise told Today in July 2007, reflecting on their relationship highs and lows. “My dreams became his dreams, and it was all about him and his goals, and I kind of lost myself.”
Denise wrote in her book that she had to stop trying to win Alan back (during their brief separation) and instead leave it up to God. She also learned to forgive. Alan, for his part, wrote the forward for the book.
April 2010
Denise was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2010 and underwent radiation and chemotherapy. She was declared cancer-free after two months of treatment.
Alan later told Coping magazine that his wife’s health scare reminded him “how important it is to have someone there to walk with you through something like this. It was the first time I felt like I was living out the phrase in our wedding vows ‘for better or for worse.’”
That same spring, Denise was on hand to see Alan receive his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
August 2014
Denise was by Alan’s side — and so were their three daughters — to witness the opening of the Alan Jackson exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in August 2014.
October 2017
The Jacksons got all dressed up to celebrate Alan being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
September 2021The country singer revealed in fall 2021 that he’d been suffering from a degenerative nerve condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease for the past 10 years, which affected his ability to walk and perform on stage.
“I’ve been reluctant to talk about this publicly and to my fans, but it’s been a while, and it’s starting to affect my performance on stage a little bit where I don’t feel comfortable,” Alan said on the Today show at the time. “I just wanted the fans and the public to know if they’ve come to see me in the last few years or if they come to see me in the future if I play anymore, what’s going on.”
He noted that the condition was passed down from his father and wasn’t fatal but would “disable” him as it progressed. “I’ve had a wonderful, beautiful life, and I’ve been so blessed. I can’t even imagine what other people go through,” Alan added. “This is not a condition that I would be complaining about typically, but it is going to affect me performance-wise on stage, and I don’t know how much I’ll continue to tour.”
Alan dedicated his Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 CMA Awards to his longtime partner.
“I’m probably not always the easiest person to love, but she’s been there and helped me through hard times,” he said, directing his attention to Denise. “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.”
December 2022
“Denise and I are celebrating our 43rd wedding anniversary with our new grandson Jackson Alvie Bradshaw,” Alan shared via Instagram. Jack is the first grandchild for the couple, and the first baby for their daughter Ali.
June 2024
“Denise and I are so happy to announce the arrival of our grandson Wesley Alan Smith,” Alan announced via Instagram, revealing the couple’s eldest daughter gave birth to her first baby.
Alan asked his wife to join him on stage during one of the final few shows on his farewell tour, for his performance of “Remember When.” As the song played, the pair danced on stage together.
May 2025
Alan made a rare appearance amid his health battle to perform “Remember When” at the ACM Awards. After the performance, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award that has been named in his honor.
“I do want to especially thank one person who’s been my best friend since I was 17 years old. That’s my wife, Denise, out there,” he said during his speech. “She’s loved me through the good and the bad and the happy and the sad and influenced me, given me three beautiful daughters, helped me keep my feet on the ground all these years.”
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