Alan Jackson’s family is a close-knit household composed of his wife of more than forty years and three gorgeous daughters.
Alan first met Denise Jackson during their teenage years at a Dairy Queen near their hometown of Newnan, Georgia – and the two fell in love hard and fast! The high school sweethearts got hitched in 1979 after Denise graduated, and they moved to Nashville, where Alan Jackson got a job in a mailroom and would sing whenever and wherever he could.
Denise, on the other hand, worked as a flight attendant – a job that has played a big role in helping Alan achieve his dreams of country music stardom. While at the airport, Denise caught sight of Glen Campbell. She approached the singer-songwriter and told him about Alan’s endeavors to become a country singer. Campbell gave Denise a business card for his publishing company,
With Campbell’s help, Jackson earned his first songwriting deal and managed to build relevant connections in town. And that’s when doors began to open! It was a connection that made Alan Jackson the country star he is today!
While Alan was starting to have some career, his family also started getting bigger. It was in 1990 when the country singer released his debut album, Here in the Real World – at the same year, the couple became first-time parents to their oldest daughter, Mattie Denise.
In 1993, they were blessed once again with another daughter, Alexandra Jane “Ali,” while Dani Grace followed four years later.
However, even though everything was picture-perfect, the strain of Alan’s career took a toll on his marriage that Denise decided to leave home for several months. Denise opened up about the struggles they had as a couple in her 2007 best-selling book, It’s All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life. She revealed that Alan had been unfaithful at the time leading up to their separation.
But thanks to Denise’s brand-new re-commitment to her Christian faith – as well as marital counseling and reconciling – the couple was able to save their marriage. It even inspired one of Alan’s most breathtaking songs, “Remember When.”
Since then, the couple had stuck by each other’s side – especially when Denise was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2010. Thankfully, she is now cancer-free.
Alan Jackson’s daughters now also have a family of their own. Sadly, the family’s faith was once again put to test in 2018 when Mattie lost her husband of less than a year. Her husband suffered from a traumatic brain injury after he slipped and fell while helping a woman onto a boat during the family’s vacation in Florida.
Indeed, while their close-knit relationship has been mostly full of happiness, Alan Jackson’s family has also experienced their fair share of devastation through the years.