Who Are John Denver’s Children?
For all of John Denver’s claims to fame — he was one of the most popular singer-songwriters of the 1970s, as well as an actor, an activist, and even a skiing commentator — he said it was fatherhood that was most important to him.
“At times I’ve got a really big ego. But I’ll tell you the best thing about me. I’m some guy’s dad; I’m some little gal’s dad,” he told People in 1979, getting misty-eyed. “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.”
The Annie was Annie Martell, Denver’s first wife, the subject of his track “Annie’s Song,” and the mother of Zachary John and Anna Kate. Denver would go on to marry Cassandra Delaney and add one more kid to his family — their daughter, Jesse Belle — before he died in 1997 at age 53.
Zachary John was the subject of one of John Denver’s songs
View this post on Instagram
Denver met Martell in 1966 — he was performing with the Chad Mitchell Trio at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota; she was a sophomore he spotted in the student union — and they married shortly thereafter, People reported. Denver thought he was unable to father children at the time, so the couple adopted two young kids, including Zachary John, born in 1975, according to The Gadsden Times.
And Denver’s 1975 song “A Baby Just Like You,” a selection from his album Rocky Mountain Christmas, was dedicated to Zachary. “Oh, little angel, shining light/ you’ve set my soul to dreaming,” Denver sang on that track. “Merry Christmas, littlе Zachary/ Merry Christmas, everyone.”
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Even so, young Zachary was apparently unimpressed by his father’s fame. Denver and Martell shared with People that Zachary once saw people queuing for one of Denver’s concerts and said, “Are all these guys going to hear some guy’s dad sing?”
As an adult, he’s been involved in the children’s music nonprofit Take Note Colorado.
Anna Kate helped convince Denver that “the epitome of being a man is being a father”
Anna Kate, born in 1977, is Denver and Martell’s other child, who was also adopted by the couple. “Anna Kate likes to hold hands and pray at dinner. It’s something special they enjoy doing,” Martell told People.
Added Denver, “How did we ever live without those little children? We were always meant to be together. It enhances everything.” The singer also said that parenthood had convinced him that raising Zachary and Anna convinced him that “the epitome of being a man is being a father.”
Anna Kate graduated from Dartmouth College in the late ’90s, and has maintained a private life in the years since.
Jesse Belle also inspired one of Denver’s songs, “The Gift You Are”
View this post on Instagram
Denver and Martell divorced in 1982, and in 1985, he met Cassandra Delaney, an Australian singer, per 9Honey. He and Delaney duo married in 1988 and divorced in 1993, but not bringing Jesse Belle into the world in 1989.
“This spring, my wife and I had a little baby,” he later told concertgoers. “Her name is Jesse Belle, and she’s 4 months old. And she’s the most precious gift I know in the world. That each one of us is a gift to each other. That each one of us is a gift to the world in which we live. And out of all of those feelings, I wrote a song. The song is called ‘The Gift You Are.’”
As an adult, Jesse Belle is a winter sports enthusiast, and often shares her visual art on social media.
Denver’s three children are still involved in his legacy
In 2014, Zachary and Jesse represented Denver’s family at the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, according to UPI. And in 2017, Zachary told Modern Luxury that he “still get[s] the chills” when he hears Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High” on the radio.
Anna spoke about her dad in an email to The Denver Post in 2021 as the History Colorado Center honored the singer with an exhibit “The John Denver Experience.” She wrote that the state of Colorado “inspired his art and his advocacy. It educated and delighted him, and above all, it was his home. John Denver’s legacy is global, but he is forever enshrined in what he called ‘the heart of the Rocky Mountains.’”
And all three of Denver’s kids are involved in his estate, which released a posthumous John Denver album called titled The Last Recordings in 2023, according to Billboard.
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