Kenny Chesney Opens Up On Why His & Renée Zellweger’s Brief Marriage Didn't Work

Sep 25, 2023 by apost team

Renée Zellweger, 55, is a talented actress who broke through in “Jerry Maguire.” Over the years, she progressed in her career and has earned two Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. She made headlines in 2005 for marrying and ending her union with singer Kenny Chesney. 

Chesney is one of the biggest acts on the country music stage. The 55-year-old singer has had over 40 songs in the top 10 US billboards and 32 in the No. 1 spot. The six-time Grammy Award nominee has a huge fan base and frequently hits the road for his famous tours. 

Zellweger and Chesney met at NBC’s Concert of Hope tsunami aid telethon in January 2005 and married in May of that year, barely a month after they made their relationship public. It turned out Chesney had a crush on Zellweger before they met. According to People, Chesney mentioned Zellweger, Charlize Theron and Janet Jackson in 2002 when asked to name his “three sexiest people.” He also revealed that her famous line, “You had me at hello,” from “Jerry Maguire,” inspired him to pen a song, aptly titled, "You Had Me From Hello." 

“When Renée Zellweger said that line, I thought, ‘That could be a great song,’” he told People in 2000.

The attraction was mutual as the actress fell in love at first sight when she saw Chesney at the NBC concert. She planned to pass him a note, but after her publicist intimated her interest to Chesney’s publicist, the country music singer met her after the broadcast, and they exchanged numbers and email addresses. 

A source told the outlet that Zellweger, who had been waiting for the right man, knew Chesney was the one immediately when she saw him. On Chesney’s part, he felt lucky to have met his soul mate. “I may well be the luckiest man alive,” he said. 

The couple’s wedding surprised everyone so much that questions about Chesney’s new nuptials overshadowed the Entertainer of the Year Award he received shortly after his marriage. When asked about married life, he replied:

“To be honest with you, it’s not that different. I’m a little more at ease, you know? I’m not searching and that’s what’s great about her. She’s a great girl.”

The singer also disclosed that he didn’t propose to Zellweger: “She just told me to name a time and place and she’d be there.”

While some of his country music friends knew about the wedding before it happened, others didn’t. Tim McGraw told Today: 

“I thought he was gay for the longest time! This surprised the hell out of me!”

Perhaps McGraw’s innocent statement contributed to the speculations about Chesney’s sexuality after his marriage to the “Judy” star got annulled. Zellweger filed for an annulment of her marriage in September 2005, citing fraud.

However, according to People, Zellweger released a statement shortly after to “clarify that the term 'fraud' as listed in the documentation was simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny’s character.” The actress asked for privacy and asked the public to refrain from making “derogatory, hurtful, sensationalized or untrue conclusions.”

Per People, the ex-couple also clarified that “the miscommunication of the objective of their marriage at the start is the only reason for this annulment.”

Meanwhile, Chesney expressed surprise at being called gay because of a “legal technicality.” 

“That is the most unbelievable thing in the world,” he told Today in 2009. "'Because Renee cited fraud, Kenny’s got to be gay.’ What guy who loves girls wouldn’t be angry about that s***?” he asked and revealed that he had been intimate with over 100 ladies who could testify about his sexual preferences. 

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Zellweger affirmed this in an interview with the Advocate published on Sept. 8, 2016.

“That made me sad,” she said about the allegations. “It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences. Of course, there’s the bigger-picture problem of why anyone had to make up a story at all.”

She disclosed that she kept quiet because she cherished privacy. 

“I feel you devalue yourself as a human being when you share very personal things with a bajillion strangers who are making fun of you. I just don’t see that there’s any dignity in that,” Zellweger shared. 

Chesney then revealed the real reasons his marriage failed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2005. 

“You know, one of them. That and the fact that I panicked,” he shared and claimed that he wasn’t ready.

When Winfrey asked, “After you got married you panicked?” Chesney replied:

“Yes, but, you know, I look at my life as a box. ... So everything that I put in—learn how to play guitar, put that in the box. The friends I made. I put that in the box, and my career grew. Everything around me — all of the awards and all of the songs I wrote and all the success and everything — I put in that box …”

When asked where his marriage went wrong, the musician opened up about his past relationship.

“And she’s a sweet soul, no doubt about it, but I just wasn’t ready,” he said

Per Today, he also admitted that his intense schedule made it impossible to be committed to a partner in a relationship. 

“Someone said, ‘You sure do give a lot of your life to this.’ And I said, ‘No, this IS my life.’ There’s no room for anything else,” he added. “And that’s gotta change,” he disclosed. 

What do you think of Kenny Chesney’s reasons that his marriage didn't work out? Do you believe whirlwind romances have a chance of lasting? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to friends and fans of Chesney and Renée Zellweger.