Renée ZellwegerA blink-and-miss marriage to a country singer Kenny Chesney It was so short that the actress herself sometimes forgets it ever happened — but at the time, it was one of the biggest celebrity dramas ever done. Twenty years later, let's look at what really happened to Renee & Kenny…
How did you start?
In January 2005, Zellweger, now 55, and Chesney, now 56, met for the first time at NBC's tsunami aid Gala of Hope in January 2005, but This was not a chance meeting. the Bridget Jones The actress had already planned to pass a message to the country star after admiring him from afar. Meanwhile, Chesney cited her as one of his biggest celebrity crushes in a 2002 interview with tn“Here's a down-to-earth country girl. You'd never see her coming, so—oh my!—here she is. That makes her really hot. Plus, she seems like the kind of girl who could fit in and be at home anywhere,” he said. He revealed that his 1999 song “You Had Me From Hello” was inspired by seeing the actress utter an almost identical phrase in 1996. Jerry Maguire.
The story as told by the entertainment expert and former the people Editor-in-chief of the magazine Jess CagleShe says that after the telethon, where Chesney was performing and Zellweger was answering phones, he approached her and said, “I hear you're trying to pass me a note — don't let the director find out!” The couple immediately began to get to know each other.
“They had each other out to say hello,” Cagle said at the time. “At that point, they exchanged numbers and emails and started this kind of long-distance relationship that became a real romantic thing.”
The first public hint of romance between the duo came in April, when Zellweger unexpectedly appeared on stage with Chesney at his show in Jacksonville, Florida, offering him a margarita and kissing him on the cheek.
How long did it last?
This is the part that got everyone talking.
After less than four months of dating, the couple married in May 2005 in an intimate ceremony at Chesney's private estate on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Zellweger wore a Carolina Herrera dress, and her father walked her down the aisle, in the presence of 35 close friends and family members.
It all seemed dreamy, but less than four months later, Zellweger filed for an annulment, citing “fraud” as the reason for the split.
How did it end?
When news of the shocking breakup became public, there was fierce speculation about what the “fraud” might mean, even leading to prying speculation about Chesney's sex life (which he later addressed head-on).
Zellweger issued a statement to clarify matters, saying she wanted to “make it clear that the term 'fraud' as listed in the documents is merely legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character.” She added: “I would personally be very grateful for your support in refraining from drawing conclusions that are offensive, hurtful, sensationalist or incorrect, and I greatly appreciate your understanding that we hope to experience this transition as privately as possible.”
Sometimes relationships don't work out, just ask any famous couple who's had their marriage annulled. “He said all the right things and the families and I got on well. And he seemed to be growing up like me. It was like an arranged marriage, I guess, except we chose (…)
What did they say about each other?
Chesney responded to Zellweger's statement in his own words. “This is a very sad time,” he added. “I just hope everyone can respect the privacy that I know Renee has already requested.”
But still the gossip continues, forcing the couple to issue another statement — this one together, and through their representatives. They said: Misunderstanding the purpose of their marriage in the beginning is the only reason for this annulment. Renee and Kenny appreciate and respect each other and are saddened that their different goals prevent the success of this marriage.
Both stars mostly backed off in the immediate aftermath, but in November 2005, two months after the marriage was called off, Chesney was full of praise for his ex in an interview on TV. The view. “She and I fell in love like two schoolboys,” he said. “I'm happy to know that this can happen, that this exists and we still really care about each other. It would have been bad if I hadn't met her. She's amazing. I don't want to sit here and say, 'Poor me.' I'm completely lucky, and I “Grateful for that.”
What do they say now?
Now that more time had passed since the brief, some might say doomed marriage, both parties felt more able to talk about what really happened.
Sometimes America's loved ones grieve. From Morgan Wallen to The Chicks, the biggest names in country music have been at the center of some major controversies. Natalie Maines, Marty Maguire, and Emily Strayer found themselves in hot water in the early 2000s after sharing their personal politics on the public stage. While performing via (…)
“I think people need to live their lives the way they want, but I'm pretty confident in the fact that I like girls,” Chesney said in a 2009 interview. Playboy interview. “I've got a long line of Girls who can attest that I'm not gay. In order for us to get an annulment, the legal papers could allege either physical abuse, which wasn't true, or three or four other things that weren't true either. The best thing we can put out there is fraud. So I said: OK, do it. whatever'.”
In a 2010 interview, he gave a few more details and seemed like he simply wasn't ready for marriage. “I look at my life as a box,” he said. “So everything I put – learning how to play guitar, put it in the box. The friends I made. I put that in the box, and my career grew. And that box grew into this wonderful home… and you protect everything and all the relationships and all the people Who helped you build this house? “It was outside the box. Renee's a kind soul, there's no doubt about that, but I wasn't ready…. “This is the first time I've actually talked about it, but that's what happened.”
In another Playboy In an interview in 2015, Chesney was more reflective about the turn of events and their impact on his life. “Nothing positive ever came of it in my life, I can tell you that,” he said. “I had no idea what real marriage meant. I was used to committing to one thing – music – and then I had to fully commit to another thing, which was marriage. I didn’t know how. It was a scary moment for me. I had never had any Kind of the attention from the paparazzi. It went from zero to the complete other end of the spectrum. I was going to a concert and there were helicopters flying around trying to take a picture of me and her together. I thought it would be like this all the time I did the only thing I was I knew what to do: I ran. I pushed her away in every possible way, to the point where I didn't want to marry her anymore. It was that simple. Was it the right thing to do or not? “Every day I wonder if she's okay. I mean, you don't fall in love with someone.”
Recently, in 2023 interview with Bulletin boardChesney spoke about how his experience with Zellweger made him live his life more privately. “One of the reasons I feel so private is because when my life started to change and people started to care about it on a different level, the only thing I could keep to myself were the intimate details of my life,” he said. “What's interesting is that we were actually playing in stadiums, and then… I didn't have social anxiety before that, and then you add our success and then you add that to your life and you have a little bit of social anxiety. And now, dealing with the way the world is today.” How everything has become social, how information is transmitted – yes, you have to be crazy to want to be a celebrity today.
Some of country music's greatest songs are about heartbreak — and the relationships they inspired can be just as dramatic. Shania Twain learned this firsthand when her husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, after 14 years of marriage, had an affair with her former personal assistant, Mary Ann Thiebaud, in May 2008. The couple announced their separation after (…)
Zellweger also spoke about the turbulent period in her life, saying in a 2016 interview with: Lawyer That speculation about Chesney's sexuality really upset her. “It saddens me that people somehow use that as a way to be cruel and call someone gay a pejorative, which has serious consequences,” she said. “Of course, there's the bigger picture issue, which is why anyone would have to make up a story at all. I'm an old-fashioned girl and I don't feel it's appropriate to air your laundry out on the grass. I feel like you're devaluing yourself as a human being when you share very personal things with so many people.” Of strangers making fun of you I don't see there's any dignity in that.
Zellweger added that she often forgot the marriage ever happened, saying, “It's a pretty big thing to forget, isn't it?”
Fast food key relationship
Looking back, it seems like these two were just swept up in romance and passion to fall in love after admiring each other from afar – but they forgot to know if they were actually compatible. Both were in their mid-30s at the time, marriage probably seemed like the obvious thing to do.
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Two decades later, they are both in long-term relationships, but not with each other. Chesney was dating a model and dancer Mary Nolan Since 2012 – and their relationship is very private – while Zellweger has been with the British TV star and car specialist Ants Anstead Since 2021. Interestingly, neither party has ever married again; Did those disastrous few months set them off for life?
