Willie Nelson opens up about cheating on one ex-wife and getting stabbed by another, and about his suicide attempts, in the new docuseries “Willie Nelson & Family.”
Produced by “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan and now streaming on Paramount+, the doc covers the life and seven-decade career of the 90-year-old country music icon — who is still on tour at his advanced age.
The four-part series covers everything from his early days in Texas to his troubled drinking days, affairs and shoot-outs with former family members, accompanied by commentary from Nelson and his kids.
About his father’s life, his son Lukas, 34, said in the doc, “Dad has been homeless, he’s had his house burnt down, he’s been through four marriages, he’s been up and down, he’s been broke … he’s lost a child … that’s what makes him inspiring to me: his resilience in the face of adversity.”
Here are the biggest bombshells:
His first wife allegedly stabbed him with a fork
Nelson has been married four times: to Martha Matthews from 1952 to 1962, to Shirley Collie from 1963 to 1971, to Connie Koepke from 1971-1988, and to Annie D’Angelo from 1991 to the present.
He met Matthews when he was 19 and she was 16.
“She was a dark-haired beauty, a full-blooded Cherokee,” Nelson said onscreen. “Her eyes set my soul on fire, and her name was Martha Jewel.”
Matthews died of liver failure in 1989.
About their relationship, Nelson said, “We had a lot of fun together but we fought, and we both were drinking a lot in those days. One morning we got in this argument, and she picked up this fork and threw it across the table and it stuck in my side. It sounded like a tuning fork.”
His second wife found out he cheated from his mistress’ hospital bills
Nelson has eight kids: five daughters — Lana, 70, Susie, 67, Paula, 54, and Amy, 50, as well as the late Renee Butts (fathered with his friend Mary Haney) — and three sons — Lukas, 34, Micah, 33, and Billy (who died in 1991).
He had Lana, Susie and Billy with his first wife, daughters Paula and Amy with his third, and sons Lukas and Micah with current spouse Annie D’Angelo.
Second wife Shirley Collie discovered Nelson was cheating when she found a bill from a Houston hospital for the birth of a baby girl, Paula Carlene, born to Mrs. Connie Nelson.
Nelson divorced Collie in 1971, and married Koepke that same year.
“Shirley wanted to know who in the hell was Connie Nelson,” Nelson said in the doc. “The truth is Connie had been my girlfriend for several years before becoming pregnant.”
His daughter Lana added about Shirley, “She had no idea there was a Connie. She had no idea there was a baby until she got the hospital bill. That’s how she found out about Connie. That’s how I found out about Connie.”
About having a baby with Nelson when he was still married, Koepke says in the doc, “Anyway, it happened. Honestly, I was the next one, and I don’t mean that in a bad way … I bonded with those kids so much. I loved those kids. They all became my kids, too.”
Paula said her mom was “the new girlfriend, then wife,” and it was “hard” for Susie, Lana and Billy, but added, “We’re all close. That’s dad’s doing. He brought us together as one big tribe.”
About his checkered romantic past, Nelson said, “I’ve always said 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. I have no excuses. I’d be hard-pressed to define love. I know God’s love is pure, but worldly love is flawed love, and lots of times confused love. When it came to romance, I had a gift for complicating things…”
He had a shoot-out with his ex-son-in-law
His daughter Lana, 70, said that she “was married to a guy who had some anger management issues, and he took it out on me.”
“It really pissed me off when he beat her up, so I went over there and slapped him around a little bit,” Nelson said. “I told him not to ever do that again. Then he come back, taking shots at the house.”
He explained that along with his late bandmate Paul English, he went to his daughter and son-in-law’s house with guns.
“We had the whole family there,” Lana recalled. “My mother, who is freaking out, is screaming, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, we’re going to get killed!’”
Koepke — Nelson’s third wife — said she grabbed Matthews, his first wife, and told her to “get down.”
“That’s how I met Martha,” she said.
His suicide attempts
Nelson has previously spoken about his past suicide attempts, and did again in the series.
“She and I were fighting worse than ever,” he said, referring to his first wife, Matthews, in the ‘60s.
“I started drinking more than ever. I would get drunk every night and go home with someone different every night. [I was] slowly self-destructing. I really didn’t care.”
He said he tried to “commit suicide a couple times” back in “my drinking days,” and recounted one time when, “In the dead of winter I was so down on myself I laid down in the middle of the street hoping a car would run over me. No such luck. I had to get up off my ass and kept on trying to figure out how to make a living.”
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
“Willie Nelson & Family” is now streaming on Paramount+.
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