Jerry Lee Lewis Engaged to Cousin's Ex-Wife for Marriage No. 7
Jerry Lee Lewis is engaged to his seventh fiancée Judith Brown, who also happens to be the former wife of his cousin, Rusty, according to reports.
Jerry Lee Lewis, 76, is known for his many marriages as well as his Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame music career. Lewis has been married six times, and announced his engagement to his cousin's ex-wife, Judith Brown.
Brown was first married to Rusty, who is the brother of Lewis' third wife, Myra Gale Brown. When Lewis and Brown's marriage was first reported in 1958, it caused a huge controversy, as Brown was Lewis' first cousin once removed, and only 13 years old at the time. Although Brown, Lewis, and Lewis' managers all vouched for the girl being 15, the incident was widely publicized, and Lewis was blacklisted in the United States for several years.
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SEE INTERVIEW OF JERRY LEE LEWIS AND MYRA BROWN FROM 1958 CONCERNING THE CONTROVERSY
For Lewis, marrying young was not foreign to him: he first got married at the age of 14 to Dorothy Barton, who was then 17.
"I was 14 when I first got married," Lewis told People magazine in 1978. "My wife was too old for me; she was 17." He and Barton's marriage only lasted 20 months, leading to a string of marriages throughout the Hall of Famer's career.
After a 4-year marriage to Jane Mitchum, he married Myra Gale Brown, and that marriage lasted 13 years. Nearly lasting as long was Lewis' fourth marriage to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, which lasted 12 years; unfortunately, she drowned in their home swimming pool.
After that, Lewis married Shawn Stephens, who died three months later from a methadone overdose, according to reports. His sixth marriage was to Kerrie McCarver, which ended in divorce in 2004 after 20 years of being together.
The rock n' roll singer has had four children, two of which are still alive: Jerry Lee Lewis III and Phoebe Allan Lewis.
