Loretta Lynn's Husband Made an Unbelievable Deathbed Confession About His Rumored Cheating

Celebrity

Loretta Lynn sang a few songs about suspicions that her husband was unfaithful, but did he confess to cheating at the end of his life or claim that he'd only ever been with her?

Published on February 9, 2022

As a veteran of the country music industry, Loretta Lynn established a long career as a beloved singer. And for most of that time, she was married to the same man who she believed cheated on her. What did he tell her about his rumored infidelities at the end of his life that left her in disbelief?

Loretta Lynn married her husband at 13

Born Loretta Webb, Lynn met her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, married him when she was 13 and he was 21. They had four children by the time she was 20 and they also had a set of twins later.

Lynn was always been candid about some concerning aspects of her nearly 50-year-long marriage. Most specifically, she said her husband controlled her with violence and threats, and she claimed he was also unfaithful.

On a 1998 episode of The Roseanne Barr Show, she confessed it wasn’t even her idea to start performing. But her husband told her he was “gonna get her a job” and he came back with a $17 guitar.

He essentially forced the country music legend to learn to perform and pushed her on stage for the first time when she was 27. She was too afraid to face the potential repercussions of telling him no. But she also tapped into her own natural talent.

Loretta Lynn thought her husband cheated with their daughter’s school bus driver

As Lynn recalled, she only sang to her children before performing on stage. Nevertheless, she somehow learned to be a musician despite days-long migraines that accompanied her. She became a country superstar at her husband’s command, but she eventually got word he was running around, as they say.

The source of that information was their own daughter, who said the school bus driver told her she was planning to run off with her dad. As unbelievable as that is, Lynn told Barr that her husband made a fast exit and called the other woman as soon as he was confronted with the allegations. That was enough to convince her the bus driver was telling some version of the truth,

More than fights between a married couple and various third parties, she said his cheating inspired her songwriting. “Fist City” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough” are akin to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” — just arguably a touch more combative in their messages to the other person involved.

But in the end, this was an occasion where someone was left in disbelief that their partner confessed to not cheating during a marriage, not vice versa. On his deathbed, Oliver told Lynn that she was the only woman he ever slept with.

However, just because he said it to her didn’t make her believe it. “Did you hear that s***? He’s gonna stick to it, ain’t he?” her son, Ernest Ray Lynn, remembered her saying after she left the room (per PBS’ documentary, Loretta Lynn: Still a Mountain Girl.)

The death of Loretta Lynn’s husband left a void: ‘I think I see him everywhere I’m at.’

The Lynns stayed together until Oliver died on Aug. 22, 1996. According to the AP, he eventually had both feet amputated due to complications of diabetes. His wife then put a monumental country career on hold to care for him in his final years.

And following his death, Lynn said, “I think I see him everywhere I’m at … and everywhere I’m goin’.”

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