Music
The Worst Things About Loretta Lynn’s Marriage
Loretta Lynn’s marriage may have been doomed from the start. The initial bad sign was probably that her parents didn’t want her to marry Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn in the first place. She revealed on CMT “Inside Fame” that after she met him, they told her, “You’re never to see that boy again. He’s too old and he’s too wild.” Because of that, Lynn’s mother “didn’t sign the papers, she didn’t go to the wedding,” and “she didn’t want her daughter marrying young,” Lynn’s sister, Crystal Gale, told CMT. When it came to her father, the singer recalled, “My daddy never did accept Doo very well.” It probably didn’t help that Doolittle also immediately broke his promises to her father to never hit Loretta or take her away from her family.
Loretta Lynn was so young. Lynn herself has said she was only 13 when she tied the knot to a then 21-year-old Doolittle, but she reportedly was almost 16 at the time (via The Hollywood Reporter). Either way, she was still a child bride, who was apparently in way over her head, telling CMT, “I didn’t even know what marrying was. I found out.”
It wasn’t the only thing Lynn didn’t understand. She revealed (via Esquire), “When I got married, I didn’t even know what pregnant meant.” She continued, “I was five months pregnant when I went to the doctor and he said, ‘You’re gonna have a baby.’ I said, ‘No way.'”
