Who Were John Denver’s Wives?
John Denver died on Oct. 12, 1997, in a plane crash, leaving behind a legacy of timeless music and a heartbroken family. During his life, the 53-year-old born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. tied the knot twice, marrying Annie Martel in 1967 and Cassandra Delaney in 1993.
Though Denver’s music painted him as an easy-going, lighthearted fellow, he told People in 1979 that “at times, I got a really big ego.” However, the family he started, which included adopting two kids with Annie and welcoming a third with Cassandra, made him realize what was important in life.
“‘ll tell you the best thing about me,” he said in 1979. “I’m some guy’s dad; I’m some little gal’s dad. When I die, if they say I was Annie’s husband and Zachary John and Anna Kate’s father, boy, that’s enough for me to be remembered by. That’s more than enough.”
So, who were John Denver’s wives?
Annie Martell
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Denver was an “obscure folkie with the Chad Mitchell Trio” (per People) when he first met Martell in 1966 at a concert at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.
“I wore blue jeans, a lumberjack shirt and penny loafers. John later told me he fell in love on the spot,” Annie told People. They had their first date a year later. Denver wasted no time, proposing to her in’ 67—but she first said no! “I changed my mind. So my best friend called John and told him to ask me again,” she said. They wed that year.
Annie was by John’s side when his career took off in the 1970s with “Rocky Mountain High” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” becoming timeless classics. She and John started a family, adopting two children: John and Anna Kate. They relocated to Aspen, where John lived until his death.
Denver and Martell’s marriage endured those “Rocky Mountain Highs” and lows. During a brief separation, Denver was skiing in Colorado when the scenery overwhelmed him. His thoughts turned to Martell, and while on a ski lift, he wrote what would be “Annie’s Song,” a love letter to his estranged life.
“Unfortunately, despite ‘Annie’s Song’ being an international hit and selling almost two million copies, the rekindled love it symbolized couldn’t save John and Annie’s marriage,” said Adam Reader in a 2024 episode of his Professor of Rock YouTube series. “Pressures of John’s career, coupled with his extramarital affairs just drained their relationship.”
The breakdown of the relationship revealed Denver’s “temper,” according to Reader. “When it got the best of him, it flared violently, leading to abusive behavior. During the process of dividing their property, John nearly choked Annie Martell in a fit of rage. Probably the most infamous incident is when John Denver used a chainsaw…to cut the bed they once shared as a couple. He cut it straight in half.”
They divorced in 1982.
Cassandra Delaney
Paul Harris/Getty Images
Denver’s second marriage was shorter than his first. According to Honey, Denver was staying at the Sebel Town House in Sydney, Australia, in 1985 when he walked into a bar and saw actress Cassandra Delaney.
Just as with his first wife, he fell for Delaney at first sight. The two married in 1988, and in 1989, they welcomed a daughter, Jesse Belle. But by 1991, Denver and Delaney’s marriage had dissolved. They were separated, and in 1993, just five years after they wed, they finalized their divorce.
In his memoir, Take Me Home, Denver wrote that before his and Delaney’s “short-lived marriage ended in divorce, she managed to make a fool of me from one end of the valley to the other,” according to Showbiz Cheatsheet.
Where Are They Now? Music Legends
July/August 2025
They rocked and rolled us, they shredded, they head-slammed and they crooned, but what happened to them and where are they now?
Buy This Issue