Kenny Rogers and his wife Wanda would have celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary on Monday (June 1), and Wanda remembered the special day with a social media tribute.
“Even though I can’t touch you, I hold you in my heart forever, Kenny,” she wrote, sharing a photo from their wedding day on June 1, 1997.
She also shared the lyrics to “As God As My Witness,” the song that Rogers wrote for her to celebrate their wedding.
Kenny Rogers’ Love Story With His Wife Wanda
Kenny Rogers was already a global superstar when he met his future wife, Wanda Miller, in 1993.
Wanda was in her mid-20s and working as a hostess in an Atlanta restaurant when Rogers walked in for a blind date with another woman. But the singer was instantly smitten with Wanda, and afterward, he called the restaurant to try to get in touch with her.
Read More: Kenny Rogers’ Wife Wanda Thought She Was Being Pranked When They Met
Wanda later told People that she thought the staff at the restaurant was pranking her at first when they passed on the message from Rogers.
“The bartenders always would play jokes on me. They said, ‘Oh, Kenny Rogers called back,’ and they gave me a note,” she recalls. “I balled it up and threw it in the trash can and they went diving after it. I thought, ‘Maybe they’re not joking.'”
Even after she realized that his interest was for real, she wasn’t sure they stood a shot at lasting love, since he was 28 years her senior. But the couple grew close. They married in 1997 and welcomed twin boys, Justin and Jordan, in 2004. By the time Rogers died in March 2020, they’d been together for nearly 25 years.
How Did Kenny Rogers Die?
- Kenny Rogers died on March 20, 2020.
- He was 81 years old.
- The singer died of natural causes, and had been in hospice care prior to his death. He was at home, surrounded by his loved ones.
Since then, Wanda has worked to preserve her late husband’s legacy. She personally curated his posthumous album Life is a Song, which included tracks that Rogers recorded between 2008 and 2011.
Kenny Rogers’ Widow Wanda Finds Love Again After His Death
In 2023, Wanda revealed to People that she had found love again and was dating “someone very special.”
Read More: Kenny Rogers’ Widow Has Found Love Again, With His Blessing
She also said that, prior to his death, Rogers encouraged her to keep her heart open to new love after he was gone. Due to their age gap, the singer knew his wife was likely to outlive him by many years. One day while they were watching TV, he hit the pause button and turned to her for an important conversation.
“‘You’re young. I want you to have a full life past me,'” Wanda remembers him saying. “And of course I was like, ‘What? I don’t want to talk about that. Turn that TV back on.'”
Read More: The Crazy Story Behind Kenny Rogers’ Signature Hit, “The Gambler”
She said that the man she was dating was respectful toward her then-teenaged sons’ relationship with their late father, assuring them that he wasn’t trying to be their new father, but rather their “friend forever.”
Wanda also pointed out that part of her decision to date again was wanting to model healthy grieving for her kids. “One of the big things is to show the boys that life goes on,” she reflected.
“Kenny gave me his very best and wanted me to be happy. That’s a really big man to be able to say those words and mean it,” she continued. “I think it just shows the kind of guy he was.”
PICTURES: See Inside Kenny Rogers’ Staggering California Estate
Kenny Rogers developed a taste for fine living early in his success. His ultra-lavish mansion in Bel Air, Calif., an estate called Lionsgate, was opulent even by celebrity standards. The 11-bedroom, 17-bathroom home totals 23,988 square feet of space, and it sits on 1.63 acres of some of the most expensive real estate in California.
The lavish interior includes a master suite that encompasses more than 3,000 square feet, three separate living rooms, seven fireplaces, a billiards room, a formal study, a private 12-seat theater with leather seats, a climate-controlled wine room that opens onto a saltwater pool, three steam showers and a large dry sauna. The property also features an outdoor glass elevator that leads to a large ballroom party space with an attached guest suite and a professional-sized gym.
Gallery Credit: Sterling Whitaker
